According to unofficial reports, certain progress was made at the talks held earlier this month (May 8) in Rome between Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s representative Isaac Molho and US Secretary of State John Kerry, in which senior officials from Jordan and Qatar also took part. Nonetheless, diplomatic sources caution that the progress regarding negotiation guidelines (a return to the 1967 border and an exchange of territories) is, in fact, a “manipulation” designed to improve Israel’s international standing in order to prepare for a possible attack on Iran.
At the same time, there has been a considerable slowdown of construction in the settlements in the past few months. The Palestinians have set June 6 as the deadline for resumption of the diplomatic process. The Arab League has threatened that if an agreement is not reached until then on the resumption of negotiations over a permanent arrangement, the organization will withdraw its peace initiative and its member states will launch a struggle against Israel on the world stage.
President Barack Obama and Secretary Kerry are trying, so far without much luck, to convince the heads of the Arab League states, especially the Saudis, to grant Israel “an advance” on account of a future normalization of relations. “A small taste,” such as permission for Israeli airline El Al planes to shorten their flights to the Far East. The practical significance of such a move is that on the First Family’s next official (or should we say “royal”) visit to China, flying time will be several hours shorter (good news for the Israeli taxpayer, as well).
Netanyahu’s journey to China last week (May 6) reminded me of my first visit to Beijing, a bit over 20 years ago. I was sent there to accompany then-Foreign Minister David Levy on an historic visit to China marking the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and the giant superpower and the inauguration of an Israeli embassy in the Chinese capital. On the day following the festive ceremony in Beijing, we flew to Moscow to participate in the launch of the multinational track of Middle East talks in five working groups: economic cooperation, arms control, water, environment and refugees. China had been invited to the Madrid Peace Conference (1991) and had chosen to take part in the water issues group.
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