Palestinian-Israeli Talks Remaining Low Profile
Amid ongoing regional turmoil, the peace talks brokered by the United States are out of the spotlight.
US Secretary of State John Kerry seems to have succeeded in one important aspect regarding the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. He publicly stated that he had received a commitment from both sides that the talks would be kept secret, and so far it appears to have worked.
After Kerry’s well-publicized July 19 statement in Amman and the highly visible opening session of the talks in Washington on July 29, both sides appear to have deliberately avoided the spotlight. The local media was full of stories about journalists trying to determine where the Jerusalem meeting was to take place, but to no avail. In the end, the media was forced to publish the only photo released by the negotiators of the Jerusalem meeting, held at an undisclosed location. It might prove to be more difficult to avoid the spotlight during the next meeting planned for Jericho or Ramallah simply because of their smaller size and limited number of possible locations.
While the motivation for keeping the negotiations low-profile might be understandable, it is harder to comprehend why the talks have not produced public expressions of support. So far only two public events have taken place involving Palestinians and Israelis. One was a visit by Palestinian legislators to meet their counterparts in west Jerusalem at the Knesset. Much attention was paid to a Palestinian flag being present in the Knesset alongside the Israeli flag. The second meeting took place last week in the Hungarian capital of Budapest and also involved legislators from both sides.
Very little cross-border media activity has taken place, however. Neither side has given a major interview to the other side’s media nor does it appear that the leaders have conceived media strategies to try to generate support for their points of view. When CNN contacted the Palestinian representative in Washington to counter the viewpoint that the Israeli ambassador had given CNN’s Fareed Zakaria July 26 on the program GPS, the Palestinian official declined, citing the request by Kerry to keep a low profile. The network eventually interviewed a Palestinian columnist to present a semblance of balance. It is unclear whether the absence of a Palestinian media strategy is the result of yielding to the American request or a reflection of incompetence and lack of proper planning.
