A Coalition Conflicted

In 1967, in the wake of the Six-Day War, the Arab League convened in Khartoum and issued their Three Nos: No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Thirty-five years later, in 2002, they met in Beirut and offered their solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict: The Arab Peace Initiative (API).

The Initiative offers Israel full diplomatic relations with the Arab (and Islamic) world, including Saudi Arabia, Libyan, Syria and even Iran. In exchange Israel must withdraw from all lands won in the Six-Day War and come to a “just solution” for millions of Palestinian refugees. The PA strongly supports this plan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked President Obama to adopt it into his Middle East policy.

For most Israelis, this deal was viewed as a non-starter. Israel has well over half a million residents living beyond the Green Line in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights (and at the time in the Gaza Strip). And most who believe in both the right to and the need for a Jewish state understand that allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes within Israel (per their pre-1967 borders) would change the demography of Israel in a way that would all but guarantee the end of the Jewish state.

So the deal was dismissed and ignored.

In 2007, the Arab League re-endorsed the plan. In 2008, full page ads were taken out in Israeli newspapers to promote the Initiative to the Israeli street. The ads stated that “Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation.” Underneath the text were Palestinian and Israeli flags set side by side. The ads were paid for by the PLO.

In April of this year, after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani said, “The Arab League delegation affirmed that agreement should be based on the two-state solution on the basis of the 4th of June 1967 line, with the (possibility) of comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land [sic].”

Allowing for land swaps is a massive change to the concept of the API. In its initial wording, Israel would have had to have left every square dunum of land won in the 1967 war. Opening the agreement to potential land swaps could allow Israel to keep swaths of the West Bank and East Jerusalem with large settlement blocs currently home to hundreds of thousands of Israelis. In exchange, it could offer bordering Arab towns and/or currently undeveloped sections of the Negev to be included in the future Palestinian state.

Israel has been mostly quiet following the revamped Initiative. Tzipi Livni, Israel’s top negotiator and Justice Minister was quick to call the modification “very positive.” But so far, Bibi has been mostly mum on the subject.

After several weeks without significant response from Netanyahu’s coalition, two prominent members came forward within days of each other to make clear their own views on Israel’s interest in this plan, or any plan involving a two-state solution. On June 5, Danny Danon, Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister and a member of Bibi’s Likud, stated that Likud-Beytanu and Jewish Home are opposed to a Palestinian state and that efforts at negotiations are futile. He went on to state:

“Look at the government: there was never a government discussion, resolution or vote about the two-state solution. If you will bring it to a vote in the government — nobody will bring it to a vote, it’s not smart to do it — but if you bring it to a vote, you will see the majority of Likud ministers, along with the Jewish Home [party], will be against it.”

On June 17, Naftali Bennett, the head of the Jewish Home party (the fourth largest party in the 19th Knesset) and Israel’s Economy Minister stated that “the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in the land of Israel has reached a dead end,” registering a clear rejection of the API.

But then on June 20, Yesh Atid’s Yaakov Peri, the former chief of the Shin Bet and Israel’s current Science and Technology Minister endorsed the updated Arab Peace Initiative, stating is was “a good basis for negotiations with the Palestinians.”

And while it would be hard to claim this acceptance of the API marked a turning point in official rhetoric, much less policy, two days later, Naftali Bennett clarified that Prime Minister Netanyahu is serious about the two-state solution and that he “will not stand in the way of negotiations with the Palestinians.” Of course, he completed his statement by expressing “skepticism that anything will come of it.” But skepticism is still a big step forward in comparison to the death sentence that he had issued less than a week prior.

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