Highlights of the “Is the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse Breakable” panel at the annual 13th annual Herzliya Conference
The Middle East’s leading security & policy gathering takes place March 11th – 14th at the Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzliya
The following are highlights of the panel discussing the Israeli Palestinian Peace Process which took place tonight at the 13th Annual Herzliya Conference:
Dr. Robert Danin, Eni Enrico Mattie Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations:
“In order to break the impasse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, “a conceptual shift is required”. “It is important that parties understand that change is possible.”
Danin stressed the importance of the leadership: “If leaders will tell their public that there is no partner – they’ll believe it, that’s what we have today.”
Prof. Shlomo Avineri, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Former Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
“The reason Olmert was unable to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians, was that “beyond goodwill, it turned out that there were big gaps between the most moderate Israeli and most moderate Palestinians in core issues: borders & settlements, Jerusalem, refugees, and Israel’s security.”
Avineri concluded that a peace agreement is “unattainable at the moment.” He argued: “we have to go for pro-active conflict management. Not as a substitute for an agreement, but as a dramatic step forward, so that at the end of the road we might have a final status agreement.”
Brig. Gen. (Res.) Michael Herzog, Milton Fine International Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy”
“It would be very difficult to bridge the differences on core issues. These issues touch the core of the national narrative. I am very skeptical that the two current leaderships can achieve agreement on core issues.”
Dr. Yoaz Hendel, Chairman, Institute for Zionist Strategy:
Handel argued that a peace agreement on the lines of the two-state solution is impossible to achieve at this time. “There are fundamental problems that can’t be solved. Both sides cannot agree on the refugee issue, Jerusalem, or the settlements.”
“We should strive for an interim agreement. If we do not want to continue the status quo, we should create an Israeli initiative and define the limits of the Israeli consensus.”
“I think that Obama is coming to Israel in order to talk to the Israeli people. The Americans understand that after 46 years, new out of the box ideas must be found.”
Maj. Gen. (res.) Nati Sharoni, President of the Council for Peace and Security ??“The ’67 borders are defendable. Any border that the state of Israel will determine will be defendable. The strategy may be different, but it would be defendable. The threats we envision are threats that can be protected against in the 67 borders – with or without settlement blocks.”
“The only thing that determines a political possibility for peace is leadership. Leadership is the key, and it could bring the public to believe that peace is possible.”
Mr. Dani Dayan, Former Chairman of the Yesha Council:
“We are at an impasse because we said that the aim of the peace process is the two state solution, which does not exist. The problem is not technical. It is that you cannot reconcile the national aspirations of the Zionist movement and those of the Palestinians. There is no theoretical point where the minimal aspirations of the Jewish people and the minimal aspirations of the Palestinian people could meet. The proof is very simple: Ehud Olmert. He is almost religiously believes in the two-state solution and he failed. If Olmert couldn’t achieve it – no one can.“
The full panel discussion can be seen at: http://www.herzliyaconference.org/eng/?CategoryID=476
The Herzliya Conference is the flagship of the Institute of Policy and Strategy (IPS) at the Lauder School of Government of IDC Herzliya. The Herzliya Conference addresses Israel’s national agenda by encouraging public debate and influencing the country’s public policy planning. This is achieved through convening Israeli and international elite policy makers, conducting cutting edge research, fostering a global network of contacts in a public forum by attracting the best and the brightest to take part in the conference and its discussions.
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““Is the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse Breakable”
Short of a couple of Israeli nukes over Gaza and the West Bank, the answer is no.
@ john Train:This speaker was the only guy I disliked on the panel. Everyone else was reasonable.
The concept and discussion of secure borders for Israel should be removed from the agenda and demands by Israel. First of all nobody ever explains what it means and the definitions are always shifting depending on the agendas of those giving the definitions.
Only last year Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were hit by rockets from Gaza in 3 weeks Israel was hit by over 1300 cheap rockets and it cost us at a ratio of $300 against $50,000 for each one shot down by Iron Dome. How much would it cost us to shoot down 10,000 rockets or 50,000 rockets? We can’t afford static defensive doctrines and hi Tech weapons that are less than perfect and can be overwhelmed by massive multiple launches against it. The Gazan Arabs have begun to manufacture their own rockets above the short range primitive Kassams. Iran has provided the know-how and some of the material as well. Each year their knowledge and know-how increase in sophistication including range accuracy and payload. All one need to do is to project where they might be in a year or two from now to reach some understanding of the threats. What exists in Gaza is easily transferable to Y & S. Rockets hitting our only international airport would close it down and shut the country down, There are strategic sites that if hit would cause meg damage. Israels population hub is highly concentrated enough where even stupid rockets going the distance will invariably hit something or someone.
No border even if Israel controlled all of Y&S hermetically could be called secure in the age of massive missile and rocket threats from without but it is idiocy to invite them adjacent to close range in easy reach of 70% of the population of the country not to mention many if not most of Israels most strategic sites not hardened against such threats. Strategic depth won’t protect Israel but it would allow for diversifying our concentrated population centers this would also be a plus when we get hit by earthquakes and we are overdue they tell us for a big one or ones! You don’t build skyscrapers on top of active geological faults Israel has 3. Diversifying the population is also advisable for surviving a nuke attack.
If Israel can evict up to a quarter of a million to a half million Jews why not evict 1 and a half million Arabs instead. Same principle different objectives, costs and logistics but doable if there is a political will and a policy follow through. Merkava Tans can be damn persuasive.
Secure borders should be jettisoned from the discourse and in place concentrate on maximizing our territory including population transfers because firstly it’s our and secondly it will save the lives of Jews and Arabs in the future by ending the conflict through force of will and force of arms. Yes I am willing to pay a fair price for property of the dispossessed but only if they leave peaceably otherwise Zip.
Suicide bombers can still infiltrate though our static porous defenses aided or perpetrated by Arab 5th column inside of Israel or from Jerusalem and it’s environs.
Just under the Israpundit heading is the truth – There is no diplomatic solution – Learn it, Believe it, Live it.
What I found interesting was that Avneri disagreed with Livni. Then the next three experts agreed that it wasn’t possible but that we had to keep trying. Dayan clobbered them with reality and they had no comeback.
Agreed.
Peace is impossible because the aims of the Jews and the Arabs are fundamentally irreconcilable.
The core of the conflict is not territorial but existential and that’s why its defied all efforts at a solution.
Until the Arabs give up their dream of destroying Israel, no solution will work.
Israel’s elite seems incapable of acknowledging this simple reality. There is nothing Israel can do to induce the Arabs to make peace and its a waste of time trying to get them change their minds.
These “experts” (most of them anyway) really just don’t get it. They fail to understand that the “Palestinian” ethos, it’s very reason for being, it’s entire national identity and civic expression is singularly to destroy the Jewish state, pure and simple. You can’t make peace with someone who only wants to destroy you. What is there to negotiate about your demise? There is absolutely no prospect for co-existence, none whatsoever. The only solution, the “thinking out of the box” is to transfer them, lock, stock and barrel the hell out of Israel from the river to the sea and be done with it once and for all. Enough of this death by a thousand cuts, this lunatic “piece-making”!