By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--June 23, 2016
World News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
"Currently the practical conditions, the political and regional circumstances, which would enable us to reach a permanent agreement between us--the Israelis and the Palestinians--are failing to materialize."
"Distinguished audience, if the international community really wishes and truly aspires to be a constructive player, it must divert its efforts away from the renewal of negotiations for negotiations' sake, and toward building trust between the parties, and to creating the necessary terms for the success of negotiations in the future."Rivlin laid out four areas where building trust could occur:
"First, harnessing the moderate powers in the region. The cooperation with Jordan and Egypt is a supreme common interest of Israel and the international community as well, in the aim of preventing military bolstering from beyond our borders, and in order to eradicate extremism and preserve the stability of the region... Second, developing Palestinian economy and infrastructures for quality of life. One cannot speak about a future agreement when people live with a basic existential feeling of having no future, no opportunities, no hope, and no horizon. With the backdrop of economic difficulties in Judea and Samaria, and the situation in Gaza, a broad economic course of action is called for... Third, investing in joint ventures aimed at creating joint interests... Fourth and ultimately--education. Increasing stability, developing infrastructures and strategic terms are essential conditions, but are not enough. Creating the conditions for any future agreement requires conditioning hearts on both sides for the possibility of living with mutual respect..."Rivlin's message was timely--but could have been more pointed had he stressed that trust building and conditioning of hearts on both sides couldn't realistically occur whilst:
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com