After signaling planned goodwill gestures intended to prod the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table during his speech Monday to the AIPAC 2013 Policy Conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly lining up just such a package :
The gestures will include the transfer of authority over two access roads — one to the new Palestinian city Rawabi, and the other to the West Bank city of Tulkarem — to full Palestinian control, the approval of building plans for 10 Palestinian villages currently deemed illegal and under threat of being demolished, the release of many of the 123 Fatah prisoners arrested by Israel before the Oslo peace talks, and the transfer of small arms ammunition to the Palestinian security forces.
The moves will be timed to coincide with an upcoming visit to Israel by President Barack Obama, who will be accompanied by newly minted Secretary of State John Kerry. The American delegation is scheduled to arrive in two weeks for talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders on a range of regional issues. Given the timing of the moves and that the Prime Minister will likely just completed the formation of a new governing coalition in the aftermath of elections for Israel’s 19th Knesset, the effort carries potential political risk for Netanyahu.
Israel’s Maariv newspaper indicates that Netanyahu may have already discussed the moves in talks last month with Middle East Quartet special envoy Tony Blair.
Recent years have seen the peace process hampered by a series of procedural and substantive Palestinian decisions and a consistent refusal to reciprocate Israel’s offer of unconditional negotiations. Last year, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in defiance of U.S. requests, pushed ahead for Palestinian non-member statehood status in the United Nations. The campaign, which violated decades of signed agreements with Israel committing the Palestinians to negotiating the status of the West Bank bilaterally with Israel, was criticized by analysts for “threaten[ing] United States and Israeli interests” and “undermine[ing] all internationally accepted frameworks for peace.”
The diplomatic campaign came after Abbas rebuffed repeated U.S. requests to return to the negotiating table and dismissed Israeli goodwill gestures, including those involving settlement freezes and prisoner releases. Instead Palestinian negotiators piled on an array of preconditions that made negotiations impossible.
It is unclear whether the new round of concessions and incentives will be sufficient to return Palestinian Authority officials to peace talks.
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