What Kind of Salmon is State Smoking Now?

The following colloquy occurred yesterday in the State Department Daily Press Conference, when Press Spokesman Sean McCormack asserted that prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians are better than at any time in the recent past:

QUESTION: . . . How do you arrive at that when you have a huge swath of Palestinian territory under the control of a group that doesn’t even recognize Israel? I don’t see how you get from Hamas in control of Gaza to the prospects. . . .

MR. MCCORMACK: . . . When I think about the prospects for peace in the region are — between the Israelis and the Palestinians are better than they have been in any recent time, I’m referring back to the era of, you know, 2001, just around the time President Bush came into office. Remember –

QUESTION: A.D.?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, step back for a second. Remember the situation in which we found ourselves back in January 21st, 2001. And President Clinton made Herculean efforts to try to bring the parties together. Ultimately, it was Yasser Arafat who scuttled those efforts. But you had a raging intifada. You had a situation where Yasser Arafat was running the Palestinian Authority as his own personal fiefdom and apparently for his own personal gain as well as the gain of many of those around him. He had just turned down what, by the account of most pundits, was a very attractive deal for the Palestinian people. He just couldn’t bring himself to make the compromises necessary to reach an agreement.

You had Israeli politics which was bitterly divided. You had a situation where there was a new prime minister who was coming in who was the father of the settlement movement and unalterably opposed to any compromise involving the West Bank. But, and now we find ourselves in the situation where Israeli politics has re-centered around the idea of an accommodation with the Palestinians, and that re-centering of Israeli politics was led by the very person who previously was unalterably opposed to any sort of accommodation with respect to the Palestinians, including in the West Bank. And by the way, the Israelis back in 2005 gave up some settlements on the West Bank.

We now have in place a Palestinian Government that is led by a well-respected, internationally well-respected Palestinian Prime Minister, a President who is foursquare for a negotiated settlement for a Palestinian state and who is also interested in reforming Palestinian institutions and is interested in reforming his own political party.

You also have a situation now where the Arab states have reissued an offer to Israel regarding how Arab states could recognize Israel. Now, everybody understands that the Israelis have problems with the proposed solution as it stands right now, but what we have encouraged is for the sides to look at it as a starting point, as a basis for discussions.

So that’s sort of the thumbnail version of why we think now the underlying conditions are better than they have been in the recent past. Now, that is not to say, as you pointed out, that there aren’t great challenges, that the fact that the Palestinian people still need to reconcile the fundamental contradictions within their political system still exists. But that existed back in 2001 as well. Hamas was not just something that appeared within the past two or three years. It was something that was building strength over time. It was building strength over time because you had a Palestinian Authority that was not well-governed and that did not serve the needs of the people. So as a result, it was able to build strength. Now, you have something out there for the Palestinian people to look towards. They have a Palestinian Authority that is interested in trying to serve their needs. Now, they have a ways to go and that’s part of what Tony Blair is going to be working on with President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. So that’s my case in brief.

QUESTION: Oh, that was the brief version?

MR. MCCORMACK: That was the brief one.

QUESTION: Well, I’m glad we didn’t get the long one.

The problem in State’s view was that Arafat “just couldn’t bring himself to make the compromises necessary.”  But now the Palestinians “have a Palestinian Authority that is interested in trying to serve their needs” with a president who is “interested” in reforming Palestinian institutions. Of course “the fundamental contradictions within their political system still exists” and Gaza is in the hands of Islamic terrorists. 

But the Arabs have made an “offer” they know Israel can’t accept:  a paper peace if Israel will just move to indefensible borders, uproot 250,000 citizens, and accept a right of return.  The State Department thinks this is a “basis for discussion” and prospects are the best since 2001.   Bring on Phase III.

(Previously at JCI:  "What Kind of Salmon is She Smoking?")