Mistrust will not allow peace to flourish in Israel

May 13 2008 Agenda

During a visit to Israel 60 years after it became a nation-state, Paul Bradley discovered that prospects for peace in the troubled Middle East are still far off

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Exactly 60 years ago Britain's last high commissioner slipped out of Palestine's territorial waters on a Royal Navy battle cruiser and left Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, to declare independence.

Within hours forces from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon had moved into the area and Israel was battling for survival.

Today, after fighting bloody wars in 1956, 1967 and 1973, the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are still obvious.

I spent four days in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with a company which made no bones about the fact it was trying to promote Israel while the country was celebrating its 60th anniversary.

They wanted to steer the group of journalists I was with away from the view that Israel had now become the matured bad boy of the Middle East which was bullying Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Instead we were shown a modern country that was desperately trying to negotiate a long-term peace settlement with its Palestinian neighbours.

I discovered the enormity of the obstacles standing between them and such an agreement.

More than 4.5 million Palestinians are now registered as refugees by the UN and they are still fighting for their right to return to their homes which they say were taken off them by force by Israelis in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that has lasted since 1948.

Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their own and the Gaza Strip, seen by Palestinians as the world's largest prison, is still a hot-bed as Israel controls the borders for its own security.

The feeling I got while I was in Israel was that the push for peace had now turned into a futile and impotent performance art played out by weak politicians.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, is still at the centre of a corruption scandal and could lose his grip on power at any moment.

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, has little room to manoeuvre when faced with the might of America.

His moderate Government is seen as powerless when compared to the Iranian-backed Hamas which many believe is slowly beginning to re-armour in Gaza.

And then you have Bush and Blair.

Bush must surely now be seen as a lame duck looking for his final legacy and Blair is simply reaping the financial rewards from the reputation he built in resolving the Northern Ireland conflict.

So how does this impact on the current peace talks under the Annapolis peace initiative?

When I met one of Mr Abbas's aides in Ramallah I was given the impression that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation held out little hope for any meaningful progress in the talks.

Indeed, I was told that even the preamble had not yet been agreed upon and there had been no movement from either side. But when I spoke to Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr Olmert, I was told a very different story.

He said: "These are the most important discussions any Israeli leadership has ever had with a Palestinian leadership.

"The fact that there has been no leaks to the media about what has happened during the talks is indicative of how well they are going and a sign we are making a lot of progress."

Yet it remains clear that nobody really trusts anyone in this area of the world and without trust a two-state solution will be very hard in coming.

On face value the two countries want to move forward.

When it comes down to it though, realities of the situation are too stark to ignore and more often than not historical disputes rear their awkward heads.

Nir Barkat, leader of the opposition for Jerusalem City Council, was the epitome of this problem.

As a successful businessman who had made his millions in America he talked a good game, but his aim of attracting 10 million tourists to the city every year left me gobsmacked.

Did he honestly believe he could convince foreigners the city was safe for a week in the sun?

Actually, he did, but when pushed on the matter things started to fall apart. He admitted that the current peace talks were merely an exercise which showed to me the lack of confidence and belief people had in a realistic peace agreement.

If Israelites and Palestinians did not believe it, why should we?

Mr Barkat then responded that the main thing that mattered was that he was willing to work with any Palestinian and he trusted any Palestinian.

That sounds like a good building block, I thought, before he told me that business was actually very difficult because his Palestinian counterparts, whom he trusted, kept getting themselves killed. He did not, he told me, trust their replacements.

And I heard the same sort of noises in Sderot, a town of 22,000 people, just five kilometres from the Gaza strip.

Terrorists in Gaza have fired up to 50 Qassam rockets a day at the town since 2001, killing 12 people.

Mother-of-two Geut Aragon, 34, was in her home with her five-year-old son when a rocket destroyed their house and left both fortunate to be alive a few months ago.

When I asked her to explain her feelings towards the terrorists, she said: "I sympathise with the plight of the people of Gaza, but the people who did this to us are animals and I hate them."

Can this hatred and immediate reality of a historical conflict ever be resolved?

One answer I heard was that the Palestinian national identity now relied on being victims and neither side really believed in a solution.

In 60 years of Israel's existence there has not been peace. But are peace talks the best these countries can ever realistically hope for?