The recent deterioration
in Israeli-Palestinian relations is putting the Abraham Accord countries under
pressure.
In signing up to the
Accords, each of the Arab nations involved made it clear that they did not
thereby reject their support for Palestinian aspirations. They had simply
altered their priorities. Instead of the traditional Arab insistence that
solving the Israel-Palestinian dispute was a prerequisite for normalizing
relations with Israel, they had taken the pragmatic decision to normalize
relations first, though progress toward the two-state solution remained a
priority.
Back in March
2022 the Accords led to an unprecedented meeting in Israel attended by the
foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and US Secretary
of State Anthony Blinken. It became known as the Negev
Forum. At their inaugural meeting the members agreed to come
together on a continuing basis, making the forum a hub for promoting
multilateral cooperation across the Middle East in the fields of
health, economy, climate change, water and security .
They decided to meet again in a year’s time, and Morocco undertook to host the summit in March 2023 in its capital, Rabat. Over the following months the countries concerned held a series of meetings to plan this next forum. But as the time drew near, sectarian tensions began to rise, given the overlap of Passover, Easter, and Ramadan, while rallies and strikes in support of Land Day were being organized by Palestinian activists in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Accordingly the summit was postponed.
New dates were
announced from time to time, but for various reasons each failed to stick.
Finally the second Negev Forum summit was scheduled for mid-July.
Then came the June
18 meeting of Israel’s cabinet. The policy announcements that followed
scuppered the conference, perhaps for good. The government declared that it had
approved the construction of 4,500 new settlement housing units in the West Bank.
Gilding the lily, as it were, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, noted for his
hard-right views, had been granted full control over all settlement planning.
On the following
day, June 19, whether at the urging of the US or on its own initiative, Morocco
announced that the second meeting of the Negev Forum, due to be held in Rabat
in July, had been indefinitely postponed.
As disturbed as
the Abraham Accord countries were at the Israeli government’s decision to
expand settlement construction, Washington took it very amiss. The US is
“deeply troubled by Israel’s decision,” said State Department spokesperson
Matthew Miller, repeating the administration’s opposition to the expansion of
settlements and to unilateral actions that "make a two-state solution more
difficult to achieve."
The Israeli move on
settlements will do nothing, either, to ease the interchanges between Saudi
Arabia and the US on the possibility of Saudi joining the Abraham Accords. Any
back channel negotiations that might be under way aimed at enhancing
normalization of other states with Israel would be similarly affected.
Meanwhile both the
Palestinian leadership and Hamas are protesting at the determined steps Israel
is taking to deal with the upsurge in terrorist activity over the past few
months. Incidents are occurring on an almost daily basis.
On June 19, during a
raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israel used Apache helicopters to
cover the evacuation of Israeli personnel engaged in a large-scale
anti-terrorist operation. The next day Hamas terrorists shot and
killed four Israelis in a hummus bar. Nothing but condemnation is
appropriate for the incident on June 21 when scores of Israeli settlers
attacked villages around Nablus and Turmusaya town, north of Ramallah, setting
houses, vehicles and agricultural land ablaze. No amount of provocation
can justify indiscriminate violence against innocent
civilians. Much more appropriate was the IDF operation later
that day which succeeded in taking out a terror cell in the West Bank
using a drone.
With Israel’s domestic
situation so volatile, it is not surprising if its Abraham Accord partners feel
the need to reiterate their underlying support for Palestinian aspirations,
though hopefully there is no slippage of confidence in the future success of
the alliance. What may be in the wind, though, is a change of
emphasis. The well-regarded news website Axios recently
reported that the Biden administration, backed by several of the Abraham
Accord states, seemed to feel that the name of the proposed standing conference
– the Negev Forum – is too Israel-centric. According to US and Israeli
officials, maintains Axios, the Biden administration thinks that
using a more general name, or an acronym, would help convince more countries in
the region to join.
One such proposed name
was AMENA — the Association of Middle East and North African
Countries – until Morocco asked that the new name include the word
"peace." It was then proposed that the forum be called AMENA PD, or
the Association of Middle East and North African Countries, Peace and
Development. According to Axios, no final decisions have been taken.
Although the future of
the Negev Forum is currently hanging in the balance, a US State Department
spokesperson recently sounded a note of confidence: "The Negev Forum demonstrates the
promise and tangible benefits of regional integration, bringing the
region together to discuss solutions to shared challenges. We are
continuing to consult with partners about a second Negev ministerial this
year."
Perhaps the announcement
of its indefinite postponement will turn out to be less final than appears.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-748717
No comments:
Post a Comment