Is Annapolis Only a Dream For Palestinians?

Is Annapolis Only a Dream For Palestinians?
Serpil ACIKALIN

Friday , 23 November 2007

At the end of July 2000, the U.S. President Bill Clinton declared that after 14 days of intensive bargains between the Israel and Palestine, the negotiations at the Camp David Summit ended without reaching an agreement. In reality, the Summit remains the closest milestone for two state solution through the years for both Palestinians and Israelis. Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak were under domestic pressures about “concessions” and they were called for their obligations to their people through the days. Failing to reach a solution at Camp David triggered violent events leading to the second Intifada in September of this year.

Nowadays, seven years after the Camp David Summit, Olmert and Abbas have been working for several months for another peace initiative. The shuttle diplomacy of the U.S. and the efforts of some Arab Countries led to the preliminary success of Annapolis Summit.

The date of Annapolis Summit was 27th November and announced only one week before the Summit. This date will also be written in history like the previous conferences and negotiations including the Madrid Conference, Oslo Process and Camp David Summit.

For Tuesday’s summit, most are aware that it is more a gesture before Bush leaves office and it has a large symbolic meaning. Rice has visited the region many times this year and talked to Abbas and Olmert to convince them for a joint declaration. Moreover, the previous week Peres and Abbas visited Turkey and had a chance to listen to each other in the Turkish Great National Assembly. However, the most striking point in their speeches was that Abbas insistment on the core issues of the region. What was understood after their speeches was that the Israeli side was reluctant to talk about the “concessions” and Abbas was feeling personaly responsible for Palestinians on the core issues. He not only talked about an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, but also rights of return for refugees, the Golan Heights and other annexations of Palestinian land.

The expectations from the Annapolis Summit go beyond a photo-op of delegations and seek to reach a lasting peace agreement. However, it seems impossible for this now. The Israeli side insists that the summit is just a beginning and constitutes a basis for future negotiations between two parties. Until now, the first condition was to guarantee Israel’s security for the next years, but it is difficult to interpret and define the concept of security.

Last week, another discussion about the concept of “Jewish State” surfaced in Israel and many Arabs including the Arab members of Knesset were against to this definition. Arguments for their opposition included that Arab residents of Israel would loss their citizenship rights and refugees would loose their claim to the right of return. They blamed Israel for being racist reinforced by the speech of Tzipi Livni. She stated that Palestinians already have a state, which is Jordan, as they constitute about %70 of the country, and Israel is doing Palestinians a favor by providing the second country for all the Palestinians including the Arab residents of Israel.

49 countries and international organizations are invited to Annapolis, however the most significant support from the Arab countries await. Egypt is the leader of all Arab countries, because it has contact with Israel and can convince the other Arab leaders to participate in the Annapolis Summit. Only after the Arab League’s meeting, Saudi Arabia and Syria have changed their mind and will attend the summit. Previously Syria had announced that it would not attend the meeting unless the recovery of Golan Heights is on the agenda. It was not so surprising to see this kind of reaction from Syria, but it seems irrational for Israel to play the card of Golan Heights for the expense of such a symbolic meeting. Abbas planned to persuade the Arabs in the Arab League to participate and he was successful in this effort.

According to polls of Al-Najah University, only 30 percent of Palestinians believe in the success of Annapolis Summit while 55 percent believe it will fail. Even though the expectations are very low, it is highly probable that the result of the summit will be a disappointment for Palestinians. However, the most important questions remain: what should we expect in the future after the summit and what is to be done in the days following Annapolis?....http://www.turkishweekly.net/op-ed/2301/is-annapolis-only-a-dream-for-palestinians.html