Let the Middle East peace talks begin

Arab states should embrace Obama's push to restart peace talks despite Israel's foot dragging on freezing settlements

President Barack Obama's bold re-engagement in Middle East peacemaking is beginning to show signs of progress, but in order to build significant momentum he is going to require much more co-operation, especially from Israel and the Arab states.

After several months of hammering away at the frozen tundra of entrenched positions in the region, cracks in the ice are starting to develop. Israel is inching closer to accepting the settlement freeze, although with some face-saving caveats that will allow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to assure his cabinet colleagues that he has not capitulated completely to the US president. And while Netanyahu is moving toward an agreement on a freeze, Washington is thus far holding firm to its insistence that Jerusalem must be included in the understanding.

While the US must hold firm to the demand for a comprehensive and meaningful settlement freeze, especially in practice, it is also important to avoid a major confrontation between the White House and Netanyahu that would most likely prove a diversion that would be politically costly to both sides. How much political energy and capital would be left for actual progress after such a gruelling process is questionable, and it would certainly reinforce the sense in Israel that the settlement issue brings down governments and ends political careers.

The Obama administration appears to be basing its approach on the Annapolis process, which holds that permanent status talks can begin while reciprocal commitments on security and settlements are being implemented. Netanyahu's skittishness about a settlement freeze is therefore based not only on concerns about his rightwing allies and the stability of his coalition, but also by anxiety that a freeze leads directly to negotiations that would reveal the wide gap between Israel's vision of peace and that of both the Palestinians and the Americans.

For the first time in history, the Palestinian position is closer than the Israeli one to the American point of view. The Palestinian Authority is the only major player that has fully embraced the Obama initiative, but it may have gone as far as it can in terms of diplomatic achievements, given the US-Israel dispute on settlements, and in implementing its roadmap responsibilities to enhance security in the West Bank.

There is no need for the Palestinians to accept the legitimacy of any US-Israeli agreement that falls short of a complete settlement freeze without caveats. However, if the Obama administration makes sufficient progress with Israel to allow for peace negotiations to resume, it would be strongly in the Palestinian interest to take advantage of the diplomatic opportunity while continuing to insist on closing any loopholes Israel has secured.

The Obama administration is also pressuring Arab states to commit to diplomatic gestures toward Israel short of full recognition in exchange for a settlement freeze, based on the logic of the Arab Peace Initiative. This is consistent with the regional framework within which the administration understands and approaches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and adds an important additional inducement for Israeli co-operation on settlements. Here too the US has made some progress in reportedly securing commitments from Arab states such as Oman, Qatar, Mauritania and others.

However, the key Arab player, Saudi Arabia, has been extremely reluctant to offer any inducement to Israel for a settlement freeze, arguing that there should be no reward for stopping illegitimate activities that never should have been undertaken in the first place. This position is self-defeating, since by joining Netanyahu in the camp of foot draggers and partial cooperators, the Arab states are providing Israel and its defenders with the only real political leverage they have left in pushing back against the administration's campaign for a settlement freeze.

If the Arab states genuinely understand how vitally important it is to their national interests for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to be brought to an end, they too have to be willing to incur political pain and take political risks.

There are many doubts about the Obama approach to peacemaking, but even those who take issue with some aspects of current US policy need to support and co-operate with the re-engagement. It is, after all, the only game in town and, if it fails, it could well prove to be the last such major intervention for the foreseeable future.