If the Secretary-General of the Arab League alone had the decision to continue or halt the negotiations with Israel, he would have surely ended them before they even started, as he knows that they will lead to nothing as long as there is an extremist government in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu does not want peace. However, he appears reasonable compared to his foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, the brothel bouncer from Moldova who now lives in a settlement. When Lieberman spoke from the podium of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he said that the settlements are not an obstacle to peace, while the entire world, including at least half of the Israelis, says that it is. It seems that this brothel mentality of his prompted him to believe that his opinion is more important, or more correct, than that of the rest of the world. As such, he wants an interim agreement to be implemented over several decades. I say to the reader (and not to Lieberman, as I would not spit on him, even if he were on fire) that Israel is paving the way, through its intransigence, to terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction and only God knows where they will come from or how they will end. I asked Amr Moussa about the latest developments on the eve of the meeting of the Arab Follow-up Committee in Cairo. He predicted that the Arab position will be solid in following them up because, these talks, or any talks, are conducted to achieve something. When it comes to Israel, however, talks are merely an empty shell that has no real substance and that is aimed at paralyzing the people. Besides, it is clear from the statements made by Netanyahu and Lieberman about the settlements, Jerusalem and the borders that there are no prospects for any peace deal. I still believe that President Barack Obama does indeed want a solution, and that he is sincere in his quest for peace. I also still believe that he will ultimately fail, because both houses of Congress are more Israeli than the Knesset itself, and also because of the Israel lobby and the evil Likudnik gang in and around the administration. In recent days, the Obama administration has been focusing on freezing the settlements in one way or another for two months to save the negotiations. Why two months? I link this to the midterm elections in the United States next month, and after that, well, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. The U.S peace envoy George Mitchell met with Netanyahu to find a way out. He said that President Obama is more serious than ever in seeking peace in the Middle East, adding that he had expected from the beginning that there will be pitfalls along the way. They are not pitfalls, however, but a barrier the size of the Berlin wall or the separation barrier, [owing to] the presence of a fascist extremist government in Israel. And yet, I read about a letter of U.S guarantees that David Makovsky wrote about. Makovsky is a prominent researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which is close to Israel; he knows the subject very well and has American and Israeli sources of information that are not available to the Arab researcher. Makovsky wrote that the letter pledged [that the U.S.] will not ask for a moratorium extension beyond sixty days, will use its veto power against any UN Security Council resolution proposed by the Arab nations or their allies relating to the peace process, and will accept the legitimacy of existing Israeli security needs, which involves the eastern borders of the Palestinian state and the Israeli demand of having presence in the Jordan Valley. Furthermore, Washington pledges to engage Israel and Arab states in talks for a “regional security architecture” and for further consultations on Iran. In addition, the letter mentions the need to enhance Israel's defensive capabilities, which is a euphemism that otherwise means that Israel would acquire the most advanced American armaments for free, while the Arab countries pay high prices to acquire less advanced and less capable weapons. In other words, this means that not only the qualitative edge of Israel must be maintained, but that it must also be doubled. All this in return for two months of futile negotiations? Even the Bush administration did not promise something like this if Makovsky's account is true (and I have no reasons to doubt it). In the meantime, there is talk about peace negotiations between Syria and Israel, negotiations that George Mitchell urged to proceed with during his visit to Damascus, and called for by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in New York. Since Dr. Bashar al-Assad is bound by the traditions of the presidency, and our brother Walid by the norms of diplomacy, I say on their behalf, as the people know and understand: “in their dreams”. There will be no negotiations between Syria and Israel, as Syria demands that such talks be resume where they left off , with an Israeli pledge to fully withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights into the lines that lie behind Lake Tiberias, while Netanyahu says that he wants to negotiate without preconditions, and this is a condition in itself. In truth, President Bashar al-Assad told me in Damascus that each time the talks between the Palestinians and Israel stumble, the focus shifts unto the Syrian track, as though they believe that the Syrian negotiator is naïve and will believe them. I hope that President Obama will succeed. However, the path of my life is paved with hopes that have yet to materialize. [email protected]
