Mideast Burnout

ISRAELIS, Palestinians, and American mediators seem to be slogging their way toward some kind of a deal involving a partial Israeli redeployment on the West Bank and some quid pro quo that satisfies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political requirements. But this “victory,” even if achieved, will have been drained of all significance. One of the theories of the American strategy of “step-by-step” negotiations was that agreement on incremental steps would breed the mutual confidence to make further steps easier. No one now pretends this will be the case.

Fashionable opinion blames Netanyahu. His Likud government, elected two years ago, is clearly more rigid and less trusting of the Palestinians than the Labour governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. There is another school, to be sure, that points the finger at Yasir Arafat for his cavalier attitude toward his own obligations undertaken in previous agreements.

PW

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Peter W. Rodman

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ISRAELIS, Palestinians, and American mediators seem to be slogging their way toward some kind of a deal involving a partial Israeli redeployment on the West Bank and some quid pro quo that satisfies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political requirements. But this “victory,” even if achieved, will have been drained of all significance. One of the theories of the American strategy of “step-by-step” negotiations was that agreement on incremental steps would breed the mutual confidence to make further steps easier. No one now pretends this will be the case.

Fashionable opinion blames Netanyahu. His Likud government, elected two years ago, is clearly more rigid and less trusting of the Palestinians than the Labour governments of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. There is another school, to be sure, that points the finger at Yasir Arafat for his cavalier attitude toward his own obligations undertaken in previous agreements.