Recently a political environment has emerged in Israel in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears willing to negotiate, compromise and strategize with the Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
A sustained lull in violence in the volatile region has brought both sides back into peace talks, resulting in a truce last week in Egypt that created a tenuous but stable ceasefire.
When Palestinian militant group Hamas launched mortar attacks on Jewish settlements last Thursday in defiance of the ceasefire, Abbas fired several top commanders of his Gaza security forces, demonstrating his steadfast opposition to violence against Israelis.
Before the death of Yassar Arafat last November, Sharon always insisted that Israel had “no partner in peace” in the Palestinian Authority. Now, for his part, Sharon has seized upon every opportunity to portray his political relationship with Abbas in a positive light.
Abbas enjoys international respect as a moderate and an opponent of terrorism. However, during his campaign, Abbas sometimes used harsh rhetoric to appeal to Palestinian factions, which openly support violent resistance.
As for Sharon, he faces challenges from within his own government a year after announcing his plan to unilaterally withdraw all Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip. Opponents of the withdrawal fear that Gaza will fall under the control of Palestinian militant groups; Sharon is counting on Abbas to prevent that from happening.
While renewed hope for peace certainly seems warranted, the fundamental causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still exist. Palestinians, many of whom still oppose Israel’s right to exist, elected Abbas on his promise to fight for a Palestinian state within the borders established prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and on his unconditional support for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Abbas cannot begin to accomplish these goals without support from both Sharon and President George Bush. The “road map” peace plan toward a two-state solution, which Bush and Sharon have endorsed since 2003, calls for an end in Palestinian violence, followed by a freeze on construction of new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.
However, even as Sharon works toward a withdrawal from Gaza, more Israeli settlers arrive each day in the West Bank along with expanded security measures, which restrict Palestinian participation in Israeli society.
The Israeli military recognizes the struggle Abbas will face in reining in Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks. Unless the current ceasefire holds for an extended period of time, challenges to Abbas’s authority by groups such as Hamas, al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade and Islamic Jihad will likely continue, as each group carries out violence against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. As Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said last Thursday, “If the Palestinians do not know how to [stop] it, we shall do it.”
The past has shown how fragile a ceasefire can be once each side engages in retaliatory attacks upon the other. In addition to a strong leader devoted to peace, the Palestinians need all barriers to social and economic revitalization removed if future violence is to be prevented.
This goal, while distant, can only be achieved with the unwavering commitment of Sharon, Abbas and the international community.
