EU officials began talking about the necessity of starting an international-regional dialogue that would pave the way to a two-state solution.
The EU has a plan, and it revolves around a 12-point proposal presented by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell during a Brussels summit on Monday.
At the heart of the plan is a call for a “preparatory peace conference” to be organised by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, with the United States and United Nations also invited to be conveners of the gathering.
The plan asserts the need to lay the foundations for the definitive negotiation of a two-state solution. The “absence” of such a vision will only “prolong the current violence and lay the groundwork for further radicalisation and new conflicts,” which represents a “major security, political and migratory risk for the region and Europe,” the document warns.
The document calls for peace negotiations to take place whether directly or indirectly to avoid the difficulty of persuading the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate face-to-face at present. The plan states that an initial draft of a peace agreement to be completed “in the space of one year” should be presented to Israelis and Palestinians. “I think that we have to stop talking about the peace process and start talking more concretely about the two-state solution process,” Borrell said at the start of the meeting.
The document also states that the proposed peace plan should include “robust security guarantees” for Israel and a future “independent” Palestinian state. Although the parties to the conflict should be consulted “constantly” throughout the peace process, the document indicates that their willingness to accept a solution should not impede continuing negotiations.
The discussions should “begin and continue at times when one or another party to the conflict is not willing to participate” in the talks, especially due to the Israeli government’s refusal to engage in peace talks, let alone accepting a Palestinian state.
However, according to the proposed 12-point plan, the final draft must be negotiated between the Israelis and the Palestinians to ensure the commitment of both parties. The plan also specifies repercussions for the party that refuses to commit to a peace plan.
A European diplomat based in London, familiar with the Brussels meeting, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Washington supports the European effort to bring together the parties concerned and find a way to start constructive negotiation.
“There is no disagreement between Brussels and Washington about the necessity of resuming efforts for a two-state solution, but there are differences in how to pressure Israel to drag it to the negotiating table. There are European countries, including Spain, Ireland, Belgium, and even France, that want to threaten consequences against Israel if it continues to reject the formation of a Palestinian state. But there is no indication that Washington is ready yet to use carrots and sticks to push Israeli leadership to rethink its approach,” the European diplomat said.
In the last few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected American proposals to begin negotiations to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state in exchange for normalising relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours and ensuring Israel’s long-term security. Netanyahu, who is bound by his far-right ruling coalition, says that he rejected the principle of establishing a Palestinian state for more than 20 years and there is nothing new in his position. Netanyahu and his ministers in the Israeli war cabinet stress that after the Hamas attack on 7 October, it is no longer possible for Israel to give up a geographical perimeter that acts as a buffer zone.
Netanyahu also reiterated this week that to protect Israel, it must expand geographically. “In any future arrangement… Israel needs security control of all territory west of the Jordan [River],” Netanyahu told a nationally broadcast news conference, referring to potential security control over the entire West Bank.
According to the European diplomat, “Netanyahu’s talk does not bode well for those seeking a two-state solution. What he proposes does not even provide the Palestinians with isolated ghettos. He wants all of Gaza and all of the West Bank, as he showed in the map he presented to the UN General Assembly meetings in September 2023.”
The difficulty of bringing Israel to the negotiation table was apparent in Brussels’ meeting as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz did not mention possible peace talks or the creation of a Palestinian state in his meeting with his EU-27 counterparts. In a public rebuke, Borrell criticised Katz for sidestepping discussion of a two-state solution, opting to present plans for an artificial island off the coast of Gaza and a railway to India.
“We had had the pleasure of watching two very interesting videos, one about an artificial island project to serve as a port… and another one about a project to build a railroad line linking the Middle East with India, which also seemed to us to be very interesting,” Borrell said sarcastically.
“The minister showed us a couple of videos which had little or nothing to do with the issues we were discussing. I think the minister could have made better use of his time to worry about the security of his country and the high number of deaths in the Middle East and the high death toll in Gaza,” he added.
Borrell stated during the meetings which were also attended by the foreign ministers of Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, that the EU is determined to seek a two-state solution, regardless of Israel’s willingness to take part.
“Peace is a very general objective, nobody would say they are against peace; in our view, we should stop talking about peace in the Middle East but talk about specifics, about the two-state solution,” he said. “If Israel does not want the solution, it is going to be difficult for them to take part… but it does not stop others taking part.”
This strong European position stands in contrast to Washington’s. Although the American administration says that it believes that the two-state solution is the gateway to ending the crises in the Middle East, Washington has not yet presented a plan on how it wants to move forward in this regard.
“Biden is talking about the two-state solution as a long-term aim without talking about an immediate ceasefire in Gaza or immediate stopping of settlement activities. That does not make any sense. On top of that, the White House provides Israel with diplomatic cover and supplies it with weapons worth tens of millions of dollars by bypassing the US Congress. I do not believe that The Biden administration has presented itself as an honest mediator,” a London-based Arab diplomat familiar with the European peace plan told the Weekly.
There are doubts in the region about Biden’s ability or desire to put pressure on Israel. The American president is in the middle of the primary elections, and he has not contacted the leaders of the region for weeks, and his relationship with Netanyahu is tense.
“There is a belief in the region that Biden’s talk about the Palestinian state has political goals related to his election campaign. He has been in the White House since January 2021, and during those years his administration did not make efforts for a two-state solution but rather focused all its efforts on a regional project based on normalising relations between Arab countries and Israel for greater regional integration and the formation of an anti-Iran axis,” the Arab diplomat said.
“Now the American administration is proposing the two-state solution to relieve pressure on it, especially among the youth and the progressive wing in the Democratic Party. Also, in a way, the Biden administration is doing Israel a favour, as the American proposal may lead to normalisation between Israel and Arab countries much faster than giving the Palestinians a state.”
The American administration recognises that the Israeli establishment, whether political or security, as well as Israeli public opinion, is against the establishment of a Palestinian state. This rejection has strengthened over the past two decades with the rise of the religious nationalist right in Israel, but it has intensified after 7 October.
Therefore, Biden’s talks about the two-state solution and peace negotiations, without threatening consequences if Netanyahu continues to refuse to engage, could be seen as procrastination aimed at giving Israel more time to complete its military operations in Gaza on the one hand and ease increasing internal pressures on Biden on the other hand.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 January, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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