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Approximately, a year ago Dr. Werner Puschra and Judith
Stelmach of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung suggested preparing
a volume which describes what Israel would need in order
to move forward towards a peaceful Israel-Palestine two
state- solution. Attempting to review all relevant aspects,
seven different essays were commissioned covering the
political, security, economic and religious challenges, as
well as the perspective of Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority,
and the challenge for civil society work.
Yair Hirschfeld
provides a short historical review of the
development of the Israel-Palestine two-state concept. He
analyzes the causes of past failures, describes achievements
made and indicates suggested policies to move forward.
He argues that no “ready-made” solution can replace a
phased process of peace making and attributes the five
times repeated failure to reach an “end of conflict” agreement
to unrealistic political aspirations. Instead of asking the
question “how can all outstanding core issues i.e. Jerusalem,
refugees, borders, settlement and security be solved, he
suggests to ask the question of “How can a successful,
prosperous and contiguous State of Palestine, living in good
neighborly relations besides Israel and its other neighbors,
develop?” Instead of leading negotiations based on the
principle “Nothing is agreed upon, until everything will be
agreed upon”, he suggests to adopt the principle of “what
has been agreed shall be implemented”. This approach has
the potential to rebuild trust and legitimacy on both sides of
the Israeli-Palestinian divide.
He calls for an Israeli commitment to reach a two-state solution
along with a process of mutual recognition of the principle
of two states for two peoples in consort with a phased
negotiating process that will aim to reach an agreement on
recognition, security, territory and the future of settlements,
as well as Palestinian state-building. Negotiations should
be finalized within one year.
An agreement between Israel and Palestine to move forward
toward “end of conflict", while achieving an understanding of
how to agree to disagree” will be essential for the negotiating
process to succeed. Only a continuing bottom up approach
– creating the supportive realities on the ground, along
with a top-down approach of reaching agreements and
understandings – can prevent more failure and despair.
In order to provide the necessary legitimacy, the Arab
Quartet – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates – must play a pro-active supportive role, in
full coordination with the US, EU, Russia, the UN and the
international community at large.
Ron Schatzberg
shows that security coordination between
Israel and the PA is a vital tool for achieving stability that is the
precondition to any progress towards the two-state solution.
Though the PA security forces still face many challenges,
they did gain reasonable trust of the Palestinian public. The
joint security interests shared by the PA and Israel thus allow
the sides to maintain delicate relations in a very sensitive
environment.
He argues that extension of the PA police force authority to
villages in area B that don’t have regular police services, can
assist in restoring law and order and good governance, thus
strengthening the PA and its state institutions. Schatzberg
describes a plan on how to extend Palestinian Police services
to a population of more than 700,000, who presently do not
have access to effective policing. Implementation would
offer essential advantages to all sides and be a step in the
process of establishing the security and legal infrastructure
of the emerging State of Palestine. Providing law and order
to all citizens creates the necessary stable environment
for economic development and social welfare. A related
upgrade of the Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation would
create the necessary trust and legitimacy for a continuing
negotiating process.
Baruch Spiegel and Anat Kaufmann
address the issue
of economic enabling conditions towards sustainable
Palestinian state-building. The authors map the necessary
economic and institutional conditions required to make sure
– and thereby help convince the Israeli public – that a future
Palestinian state will not become a failed state, but rather a
prosperous and economically viable neighbor. Referring to
the 1994 “Protocol on Economic Relations” (Paris Protocol),
they argue that although the political and security situation has
changed significantly since, the economic frameworks that
govern commercial relations between Israelis and Palestinians
have not been revised accordingly. In particular, they show
that on the most essential issues of basic infrastructure
– such as roads, water and energy - the current situation
has become a gridlock. It is led by the counter-productive
principle that "nothing is agreed upon until everything is
agreed upon", which causes a mutual lose-lose effect. The
authors then suggest a number of measures – in agriculture,
on crossing points, on area C and other issues – which
should be implemented, based on economic agreements
and on-the-ground measures. They highlight the need for
the upgrade of Palestinian capacity towards independently-
managed infrastructure, linked to expansion of cross-border
cooperation with Israel and broader regional cooperation.
Kamal Ali Hassan
discusses the possible contribution of
Israel’s Palestinian Arabs to the unfolding peace process.
He argues that Israel’s Palestinian Arabs have the interest
and the capability to play a bridging role between Israel,
the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, and the Arab
world at large. While preserving their own culture, Israeli
Yair Hirschfeld
Introductory Note
