The Israeli Cabinet merely “took note”, at its weekly meeting on Sunday, of the Joint Understanding that American diplomats got Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to sign just eight minutes before the Annapolis conference last week. That is a rather cool reception.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Defense Minister all briefed the Cabinet ministers about the Annapolis event. (Interestingly, none of the Defense Minister’s remarks have been publicly reported.)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that “We aspire to reach such an agreement by the end of 2008″. But, he said, “there is no commitment to a specific timetable regarding these negotiations”.
He told the cabinet that “Ahead of – and during – the Annapolis meeting, Israel insisted on several principles the goal of which was to create the conditions for the success of the entire process. The most significant condition is that the implementation of the agreement will be conditional on the implementation of the first stage of Roadmap, including the Palestinians’ war on terrorism and the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructures in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Israel has thus made the entire process subject to the most important thing for its citizens – security. Whoever wants peace, and we very much want it, must assure the security component – even if this is difficult to achieve and even if it requires considerable time”.
Olmert said it would be possible to draw encouragement from the broad participation of Arab states in the Annapolis event. This could eventually lead to normalization of relations with a number of “peace-loving” Arab states, he said — a matter which had been officially placed on the agenda at Annapolis. In the meantime, Olmert stated that he was “hopeful that these countries will – in the first stage – open interests sections in Israel and begin to have economic ties with us; I know that several of them are interested in this.”
Olmert said that “The most important thing in the joint statement – and this is what Foreign Minister Livni, who led our team, insisted upon, and we, of course, agreed to it – is that any future arrangement and agreement will be operationally subject to fulfilling all of the Roadmap commitments, including all of its stages and outlines. In other words, Israel will not have to carry out any commitment stemming from the agreement before all of the Roadmap commitments are met. I think that this is very important and assures the security component, which is – in our view, and in any eventuality and under any condition – the most important issue that we are dealing with”.
FM Livni sounded a lot like a football coach, or perhaps a sales manager: “Last week was a good week for Israel, and we succeeded in meeting the goals we set for ourselves regarding the peace process”. She told the other ministers that the Annapolis event — and the resulting joint understanding — had “advanced Israel’s standing and promoted Israeli interests”.
Livni said that no issues “problematic for Israel” will be discussed in the negotiations — including the Arab League initiative, which, she said, “includes some issues that are awkward for us” [these issues were not specified in her remarks].
And, Livni stressed triumphantly, there will be “no international involvement throughout the process: We made it emphatically clear that the entire dialogue must be bilateral. It was important for us to make it clear that from now on the negotiations will be on the bilateral track, with no direct involvement of the international community”.
Livni said, according to a cabinet communique, that “Annapolis was also a success in that it was made clear to everyone that negotiations do not limit Israel’s freedom to act on security issues. From Israel’s point of view, the Roadmap is the minimum basic demand. Security arrangements will also be part of the ongoing talks and serve as the basis for our positions”. Olmert’s and Livni’s statements are available here on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website.