تيسير نظمي : كيري يريد إخراج نتانياهو من النفق Let's meet at six, before the war
Kerry presents new
cease-fire proposal Hamas, Israel to respond Friday
By Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury | Jul. 25, 2014
U.S. secretary of state
held marathon phone conversations with every international actor who might be
able to exert pressure on Hamas.
International efforts to
achieve a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip are approaching the critical point. A
senior Israeli official said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has
drafted a new cease-fire proposal and presented it to both sides. Kerry, who
will leave Cairo Friday afternoon and return to Washington, is awaiting an
answer from the Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers as to how Khaled Meshal,
the head of Hamas’ political wing, has responded to his proposal.
The Israeli official
said that Kerry’s proposal, which he presented to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu at their meeting Wednesday evening, contains the following
elements:
1. A one-week, temporary
cease-fire, starting Sunday, during which Israel Defense Forces troops will not
leave the Gaza Strip entirely and will continue to
locate and destroy Hamas tunnels.
2. During this
cease-fire, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations on a more permanent
arrangement, with Egyptian mediation. The Palestinian Authority will
participate in these talks.
3. The United States,
the UN secretary-general and the European Union will provide guarantees to both
sides that the negotiations will deal with the issues important to them – for
Israel, disarming Gaza of its rockets and tunnels,
and for Hamas, ending the blockade of Gaza and repairing the damage the Strip
has suffered.
Kerry, who returned to
Cairo Thursday night after meeting with Netanyahu, held marathon phone
conversations with every international actor who might be able to exert
pressure on Hamas, and especially on Meshal, who resides in Doha. Kerry spoke
twice with the Qatari foreign minister, Khalid Bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, who is
in constant contact with Meshal.
Kerry also spoke with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is also in contact with senior
Hamas officials; with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry; and with
Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. Kerry also met with UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and spoke by phone with the foreign ministers of
Germany, Britain and France and with the European Union’s top foreign policy
official, Catherine Ashton, to settle the issue of the international guarantees.
A senior Israeli
official said that Kerry will leave Cairo early Friday afternoon, and wants to
get an answer from the Qatari foreign minister as to Meshal’s position before
he goes. At 1:30 P.M. on Friday, the diplomatic-security cabinet will convene
in Tel Aviv to discuss the continuation of the IDF operation in Gaza.
Both Jerusalem and
Washington are having trouble predicting how Meshal will respond. The senior
Israeli official said that both Hamas officials in Gaza and its delegation in
Cairo, which is headed by Moussa Abu Marzouk, support the cease-fire proposal and are
unhappy with Meshal’s conduct over the past week.
The official said that
either way, Friday’s meeting of the diplomatic-security cabinet is expected to
be decisive. If Meshal responds positively to the American proposal, the
ministers will vote on a cease-fire in Gaza. If Kerry’s diplomatic efforts
fail and Meshal rejects the proposal, the cabinet might well decide to expand
the ground operation.
Despite the uncertainty
over Meshal’s position, the Hamas leader did signal
on Thursday that he is ready to be more flexible. Until then, he had
refused to consider any cease-fire before all the issues critical to Hamas, and
especially ending the blockade of Gaza, had been resolved. But on Thursday, he said he was ready to halt the
fighting in exchange for international guarantees.
On Thursday, British
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond impressed on Netanyahu the need for a swift
conclusion to Israel’s ground incursion, although he blamed Hamas for triggering the conflict.
Hammond “stressed the
need for a rapid conclusion to [Israel’s] ground operation in Gaza,” and urged
that Israeli forces “do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties.”
After his meeting with
Netanyahu, Hammond told Sky News of his concern that the world is losing
patience with Israel. “As this campaign goes
on and the civilian casualties in Gaza mount, Western opinion is becoming more
and more concerned and less and less sympathetic to Israel,” he said
in the interview. “That’s simply a fact and I have to tell that to my Israeli
counterparts.”
Earlier, Netanyahu and
Hammond gave a joint press conference at the Knesset, during which Hammond
said, “I came to bring this conflict to an end.” He also put the blame on
Gaza’s rulers for triggering the current round of fighting.
Netanyahu said, “Hamas
and the Islamic Jihad’s use of civilians is extremely cynical. It’s a
travesty.”
Let's meet at six, before the war
By Yossi Sarid
Jul. 25, 2014
After eight years in office, it’s
clear: We won’t go far, or even near, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For a moment it seemed we’d get as far as Tehran, but we were delayed in
Shujaiyeh.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is
a plodding man with hasty thoughts. While it’s true that “the best
commentators” occasionally attribute him with wisdom and responsibility, they
soon regret it. When people here attempt to extinguish fires, with the last of
their water and their strength, he pulls out his giant hose and squirts oil.
One might consider alternatives, but they are all scarier than plain bullying
and blunt cynicism.
Moshe Ya’alon’s consciousness is also
not sufficiently seared; there is something raw about it. As chief of staff, he
prepared the Israel Defense Forces for the Second Lebanon War and decided that
the missiles would rust; tens of thousands of rusted Hezbollah missiles then
fell on us. As defense minister, he prepared the troops for the third Gaza war
in a decade, and did not see the tunnels at the end of the red light. A mere 40
days ago, he shut down part of the army and silenced the aircraft engines.
Lucky for us, Operation Protective Edge did not break out during the shutdown.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid and
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett both look like overgrown babies who are still
enthralled by deep secrets. Who would not be thrilled when allowed for the first
time to enter the secret chambers, and whose somber visage launches a thousand
tanks.
But it is actually the one with the
most seniority who’s the cause of the problem. After eight years in office,
it’s clear: We won’t go far, or even near, with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. For a moment you might have thought we’d get as far as Tehran with
him, but we were delayed in Shujaiyeh.
True, he was apprehensive about “the
ground action,” but he is more afraid of peace. In war people fall, and it’s
the end of their lives; in peace governments fall, and it’s the end of the
world. If war breaks out, heaven forfend, we will all be united; if peace
breaks out, heaven forfend, then we will quarrel and get mired in crisis. So
why take unnecessary risks. Soon enough “the situation” will go back to how it
was, and it was never better, like in the old days, and never will be, either.
If only Netanyahu had discovered
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier and not remembered him too late; if
only he had seen Abbas from the outset as an ally, not an enemy. If only the
regional and the international front had turned toward reconciliation before
the conflict. And had Netanyahu not dug a deep diplomatic hole, the hole would
not now be filling with blood and the “most just war” would not have had to
prove its justification daily. Only cannons waken Netanyahu from his
four-season slumber. And when they fall silent, he immediately drifts back to
sleep on the massage table of the status quo.
Do not ask “What do we do now?” if
you didn’t listen before and in time, if you didn’t grab the opportunity by the
horn, its tail will get away from you also. “Better late” could turn out to be
too late, or even “never.”
If your want to keep talking nonsense
and walking around in closed circles, Bibi’s your man. See you at six before
the next war.
Israel does not have the luxury of
having such a prime minister. A few more years with Bibi would be more years of
missed opportunities and of grave danger. You don’t change horses, so they say,
in midstream. But we are in a raging river and from this angle he doesn’t look
anything like a horse to me.
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