‘It takes two to tango’

It has been a constant Arab demand to have Washington engage in the Middle East problem. Egypt’s former president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, told decades ago King Hussein that no side can impose a solution to the Palestinian question except the US.

American Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework recommendations would have come to fruition had the Palestinian negotiators accepted to wait for the 72 hours that were requested by Israel to guarantee a Cabinet approval for the release of the last group of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

The Likud bloc in the Israeli Cabinet would have continued refusing to release the last batch of Palestinian prisoners had not a commitment to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard from an American jail been issued in what was termed as the 421 deal.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat preferred Plan B, which is to resort to the UN to expose Israel and ask for its condemnation.

Signing the 15 treaties and conventions will not bring the Palestinians closer to their goal of full statehood, which cannot materialise unless they retrieve their land, which only Israel can give back.

Moreover, Israel can never be a state for the Jewish people unless the Palestinians recognise that Jewishness first, before Arab and international bodies follow the lead.

Palestinians and Israelis need each other to achieve their political and national goals, and to realise their multifaceted objectives.

During the last two decades, Jordan and Egypt facilitated for Yasser Arafat and Abbas the mission of achieving some of those political goals. But now, with time running against the interests of Abbas and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, it is high time to resume negotiations and stop outmanoeuvring each other. The Israeli public will never condone having this chance for peace wasted. The Palestinians will never forgive Abbas for the abrupt withdrawal from the negotiation table, while knowing that the American broker is the only political power that can force the Israelis to give them back their territorial and political rights.

Netanyahu reacted in a shortsighted way by punishing the Palestinian National Authority through economic measures, while Abbas did not come closer to establishing a Palestinian state by abandoning negotiations and taking refuge at the UN lobbies and public relations forums.

There can be no Palestinian state without the land that only Israel can give back, while there can be no state for the Jewish people without the political recognition that only the Palestinians can give. It takes two to tango.