Middle East Peace
Talks: Déjà Vu all over again all over again
Middle East peace talks to resolve the so-called
Israeli-Palestinian crisis have been coming and going most of my adult
life and I’m no spring chicken — free range or otherwise. And now here
they are again! But this time, as opposed to all those other times, the
AP’s Robert Burns informs us, “the
stakes are high.” Well, yes… but maybe not in the way Burns
intended.
What’s really going on here? Let’s do a thought experiment.
The last time a hopeful world got transfixed by this roundelay
(although this time it might not be paying much attention anyway) was
back at the tail end of the Clinton presidency when Bill was trying to
untie this Gordian knot and win himself a Nobel Peace Prize. Those
discussions began at Camp David in 2000 and dribbled on to Taba in
early 2001 when it all went south with the Second Intifada and an
Israeli election.
Tons of books and articles have been written about this, I’ve
even read and forgotten a few, but I recall enough to know that a lot
of ink was spilled about just what percentage of the Palestinian
demands were acceded to by the Israelis. Some said as much as 98%,
while others said more like 90, or maybe even a paltry 88.
Now here’s the thought experiment part. I’m assuming most of
the readers here — in this case I’d wager 99% of you — have been in
negotiations themselves. When you got 98% or even 88% of what you
wanted, did you walk away and start a war… okay, just walk away? And if
you did, why did you do that … when you were so close to making a deal?
You could obviously hang around in negotiations and get most, if not
all, of what you wanted....