Mideast peace talks: round infinity

So far American-brokered peace talks have all stalled, but commentators are seeing some reasons for hope this time.

Middle East peace talks are like dating your ex-girlfriend. Just when you think everything’s back on track, it all ends in heartbreak. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are in Washington today for the first direct talks between the two sides in 20 months, and you’d be forgiven for thinking they won’t amount to much.

The National Post is finding optimism in unlikely places however. Their editorial today notes that while Hamas (who weren’t invited to talks) murdered four Israeli settlers this week in an attempt to derail the talks, neither side is folding. Abbas and other PA officials strongly denounced the violence, because unlike their previous Palestinian leaders they’re “driven by a pragmatic desire to create a real Palestinian state under their own stewardship.” The “least that can be said for the current round of negotiations is that the Israelis truly do have a legitimate partner for peace,” says the Post, and the Israelis seem to recognize that.

Recent statements from Brack Obama also bode well for the success of the talks, according to the Toronto Star’s Haroon Siddiqui. After years of failed U.S.-brokered talks, Obama is “is working on a fundamental shift of American policy.” He’s rightly realized “that what’s in Israel’s interest is not necessarily in the interests of the U.S.” As a result of internationally unpopular actions like the current blockade of Gaza and the recent flotilla incident “Israel is more isolated than ever,” which will put pressure on Netanyahu to make needed concessions.

Writing in The Mark, Mira Sucharov outlines the logic behind the two-state solution, the goal of the current talks. Working towards a two-state plan “would mean neither continuing to prop up the inhumane Israeli occupation, nor pushing for the other alternative,” a joint Arab-Jewish country that would infringe on Israel’s need to remain a Jewish state. Unfortunately Sucharov, and for that matter Abbas and Netanyahu, don’t know what a two-state solution would mean for Gaza, where 2 million refugees live under both a Hamas dictatorship and an Israeli blockade, and are without representation in Washington today.