American administration claims to bring the sides to Annapolis after seven years for an expanded peace in Middle East, more truely between Palestine and Israel. So it is in a way trying to save its image in Iraq in Palestine. But there is no reason for being hopeful as we look at the position of the parties and the timing for an assertive peace summit.

When we have a look at the Peace Process started for the first time after the end of the Gulf War I and the conditions today, the similarities are quite well marked. The comparison between today and the conditions that the Israel-Palestine meetings percepted as the harbinger of the “new world order” that is forgotten nowadays after the end of the Cold War conditions, can give us an idea on what kind of result can come out in Annapolis. Also it is useful to think about why the Peace Process started after the First Intifada with great promises, did not work and which party ended this process by provoking.

Even if the conditions are not the same, the strategical basic choices which should be taken as reference for the future are valid today. Palestinians together with the Arabic world dispersed just after the Gulf War, seemed very weak just after the process started .

We must note the factors which effect the destiny of the table talks are effected by Israel and the Arab world that is the weakest and seems dispersed because of Saddam and Palestinians do not have such a United Arab bloc backing them.

The situation today is worse. There is a serious representation problem on the Palestinian party. Not only the Arab world, but also the Palestinians inside themselves are divided and have bicephalous administration. In order to slow down the power of the rising Islamic movement in the Oslo Process, Arafat was sat around the table talks as the unique representative of the synthesis of the Arab nationalism and socialism that was declining. The Islamic movements, not to be divided and in order to give another chance, at least not to be excluded, preferred to remain silent.

But today the political extentions of the Arafat tradition, in order to be sitting around the talking table, considering being divided are coming to terms with the line of the ruling Islamic movement.

The Peace Process was annihilated by Israel at a time that the basic titles for the Palestinians were ineviatable to be spoken. Before the basic topics as the status of Jerusalem and the return of the refugees were brought to the talking table, after the famous “raid” by Sharon on Masjid Al Aqsa, the process would finish and the Second Intifada would start.

 

A peace even if not real for the Arab regimes feeling supressed and under threat after the occupation of Iraq, will help to relax the relationship of the administrations with America but will it be enough to save its own prestige in the eyes of its own people, it’s not certain. 

Before Annapolis, sitting around a peace table with a Palestinian administration divided and left alone,at the same time taken into the clamp of terror is not only perfect timing for Israel, but also for America’s situation in the region.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made statements meaning that Israel is a land purified from the Arabs, she said “We are happy that Arab countries are going to join the Annapolis summit, but they mustn’t intervene the mutual talks between Israel and Palestine.”

Even this shows that Israel by signing up an agreement with the Palestinian party left alone and by normalizing its relations with Arabs waits for maximum benefit. In another word, this is an attempt to get time for a peace that cannot be realized, to settle more Jewish immigrants on the Palestinian territories, to lenghten the life of the “Zionist Colonialism”.

  It is a clear truth that to maintain the existing situation, I mean the occupation as much as possible,

To decide to invite Syria to the talks the last minute, more than increasing the hopes for peace, means dividing the Iran-Syria strategical ally and relaxation of America that deactivates Iran in the region. Under these conditions Annapolis does not mean “peace” but it means getting closer to the negotiation. We must see that, this means America is a step closer to its attacks on Iran. Did Turkey proud of its contributions of the participation of Syria in this process consider the results of the strategical breaking?

It must not be interpreted as pessimism to claim that a Palestinian peace summit where Hamas did not join by arranging an alternative summit or is excluded, will bring the winds of war more than peace. 

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