Israeli-Palestinian talks resume, but no guarantees for peace deal

Foreign Middle East/N Africa turmoil 2013-07-30 15:06

By Matthew Rusling WASHINGTON, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Israeli-Palestinian peace talks restarted on Monday after being stalled for nearly three years, but many roadblocks stand in the way, U.S. experts said. Talks hit a wall in 2010 amid controversy over Jewish settlements built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war. But U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has pushed hard for a restart in recent months, and the new round was announced not long after Israel announced the release of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners. Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office, told Xinhua that territory in the West Bank is the main hurdle to peace because of the sheer size and sprawl of Israeli settlements there. "Major settlement blocs and security roads linking them have made large pieces of real estate--some of them obstructing access between important Palestinian dominated areas--practically impossible for Israel to return," said White, now a scholar at the Middle East Institute. Moreover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government remains hard line, making unlikely the prospect of breakthrough concessions on issues such as Jerusalem, borders, and settlements. And for his part, Palestinian President Abbas may have more support among moderate Arab governments than he has among Palestinians, White said. Hamas openly rejected the talks, and may even try to undermine negotiations by lashing out at Israel or even moderate Palestinian leaders, which would spark anger among large numbers of West Bank Palestinians after Israeli retaliation, White said. The Palestinians want Israel to pull out of areas Israel captured during the 1967 war, and demand a halt to Israeli settlement building in those territories. The Obama administration also wants to use the 1967 border as a starting point. More than 600,000 Israeli settlers now live on the other side of the 1967 line, and they represent an almost immovable political lobby with a vital stake in large areas of the West Bank containing huge Israeli populations, White said. Meanwhile, hundreds of outraged Israelis demonstrated Sunday in front of Netanyahu's office, decrying him for allowing the release of what they said were terrorists who had murdered innocent civilians. The demonstration included those who had lost loved ones in terror attacks. David Pollock, a Middle East expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Xinhua the simple act of both sides sitting down and talking is progress.

"I think it's a major step forward to just get the two sides to agree on some small steps, which they have," Pollock said. "Just the fact that they are sitting and talking to each other is likely to be very helpful." Still, any agreement the two sides may make is a long way off. "It's a very long way to an actual agreement, which I, frankly, don't expect to see any time soon," he said. "It's a few good first steps on a very long road." Apart from Pollock, political leaders, opinion polls show the public on both sides wants peace, but each is skeptical of the intentions of the other side.