It’s time for talks in the Middle East

By RANDALL CZARLINSKY
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

July 10, 2010, 3:39PM 

As Americans, we recently celebrated 234 years of independence. After 62 years, Israel continues to fight to maintain its independence and security.

Reading and listening to the recent rhetoric from the Arab and Muslim street, one wonders whether we are talking about 1947 or 2010. The United Nations voted in 1947 for a two-state partition of Palestine that created the modern Jewish state of Israel. The Arab nations rejected the partition.

The Saudis and the Egyptians have been unsuccessful in separate initiatives to bring together Hamas, which runs Gaza and continues to reject Israel's right to exist, and Fatah, which runs the West Bank.

Israel and the moderate Arab world face an Iranian nuclear threat that if successful, will change the balance of power throughout the region.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held productive discussions with President Obama in Washington last week on a range of issues, from the Iranian nuclear threat to the faltering peace process with the Palestinians.

These are daunting challenges, but Israelis are no strangers to the complexities of negotiation. Successive Israeli governments, of right and left, successfully negotiated peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan. Throughout the 1990s, it appeared as though a genuine peace with the Palestinians was on the horizon, before the late Yasser Arafat decided to resume the path of conflict.

The Israelis are willing to talk directly. In fact, Israeli and Palestinian officials talk face to face every day on security matters. Everyone knows the issues that need to be addressed: borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, end of claims and settlements. Yes, a big agenda, but no surprises.

Israel also is willing, as Netanyahu said, to make bold concessions for peace — but it can only do so if it is confident that its fundamental security needs will be respected. That is why the role of the United States is so critical.

The Palestinians want to sit on the sidelines and have America's president deliver Israel. Today, Palestinians and Israelis are going to have to sit face to face to create a two-state solution, not one state or three states.

President Obama called on Arab states to play a heightened role in advancing peace - and he joined Prime Minister Netanyahu in urging the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

For when it comes to the critical issues facing the region - confronting the nuclear threat posed by Iran, ending Syrian and Iranian interference in Lebanon and ensuring decisive, timely action to bring about a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians - the Israelis and the Americans are talking from the same playbook.

Blaming Israel for all the evils in the Middle East is the easy option. Some observers, and, worryingly, some political leaders, believe new understanding with the Muslim world could be achieved if only we were prepared to sacrifice Israel. Will leaders from Cairo to Ankara to Amman to Berlin to Moscow get behind America and Israel to let the Palestinians know the only way to resolve the issues surrounding the conflict is to sit down and negotiate directly?

Here in Houston, we have the third largest diplomatic corps in America. During our frequent discussions with diplomats, many of whom have served their countries at the United Nations or in embassies in Washington and across the globe, we have found widespread agreement that Israelis and Palestinians need to talk directly to each other.

These diplomats, however, have a greater concern: Iran and its impact on the Arab street. The Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions and its support for terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah are seen as the greatest threat to the region.

Disabling that threat will bring relief not just to Israel, but to Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf monarchies, all of whom live in fear of Iranian regional dominance. The prospect for a lasting, genuine Israeli-Palestinian agreement will be greatly enhanced if peace efforts are not derailed by fear of Iranian aggression.

Face-to-face negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis would go a long way toward dismantling the anger on the street, too.

Israelis have shown courage in defending their ancient sliver of land against hate-filled enemies.

Yet they've never lost their yearning for peace.

In the past, Palestinians have rejected overtures to create a Palestinian state, including the Peel Commission of 1937, the U.N. partition plan in 1947, the Camp David proposals under President Bill Clinton in 2000, Taba in 2001 and the most recent proposal by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008.

Hopefully, in the coming months, Palestinians will accept Israel's extended hand and build toward a prosperous future, and not reject it again.

Czarlinsky is the director of the American Jewish Committee's Houston region.