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ASIA TIMES


February 3, 2011

[Re Leaks shake up Israeli-Palestinian balance ,January 24, 2011), and A sea change in the Middle East, Feb 2] Despite the doom and gloom about the future of the Palestinian/Israeli peace process, and the effect on that process of what is going on in Egypt, there is a silver lining in the leaked Palestine papers. They clearly show that the notion propagated widely over the years by self-commissioned voices of wisdom that Israel cannot make peace because it has no Palestinian partner, is totally bogus. As is the notion that the US is an honest broker in the negotiations.
What the Palestine papers do show is that it is the Palestinians who have not had an Israeli partner with whom to make peace. The current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to force out of him the words "two-state solution".
He now stands at a crossroads of being a statesman who wants his legacy to be that he took risks for peace in order to bring an end to a miserable conflict of some 60 years. Or, will he go down in history as another petty narcissist politician who only wanted to cling to power to the detriment of his nation and the region?
So far the prime minister has chosen the second path. Furthermore, the Palestine papers show that the US has always been Israel's facilitator. No matter how much the Palestinians have agreed to, it has never been enough for the Israelis. Despite all the revelations and contrary to the conventional wisdom now, peace is achievable if all sides decide to get real. How? By a melding of the Arab plan with the Olmert plan to create two states. And by the US finally playing the role of a real honest broker leading the international community to help the Palestinian/Israelis implement such a plan. Perhaps the biggest obstacle for the US to play such an honest role is the intransigence of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd in the US. President Obama has an historical opportunity to change that. The national security interest of the US demands no less.
Fariborz S Fatemi
United States (Feb 3, '1