Comment and Opinion
Lorna Fitzsimons – 04/01/2012
Lorna Fitzsimons is CEO of BICOM (the Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre), a not-for-profit, independent organisation
The Peace Process: Three New Year’s Resolutions
“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man”, said the ‘First American’ Benjamin Franklin. The whole world hopes these sentiments spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy, Issac Molho, and chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, when they met yesterday in Amman, Jordan to conduct the first direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians for 15 months.
It would be naïve to expect too much from these first halting contacts. But jaw-jaw is always better than war-war, as Churchill said, and optimism is no vice, especially at New Year. Perhaps we can be allowed three resolutions in the spirit of Ben Franklin.
First, we won’t give up on negotiations – after all, Israelis and Palestinians haven’t.
Western commentators are prone to dismiss the prospects for compromise. Not so Israelis and Palestinians. The regular poll conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah has a most encouraging finding. There has been an increase in Palestinians’ and Israelis’ willingness to compromise.
Our December poll shows an increase in support for the Clinton permanent settlement framework on both sides. 58% of Israelis and 50% of Palestinians support a permanent settlement package along the Clinton parameters; 39% of Israelis and 49% of Palestinians oppose such a settlement. These results mark a significant increase in both sides’ willingness to compromise compared to recent years.