Weekly Commentary: PA PM Abbas and Pres. Peres don't respect Israeli
democracy

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 27 August 2009

What do PA PM Mahmoud Abbas and Israel President Shimon Peres have in
common?

This week Mahmoud Abbas declared that "If Israel fulfills its commitments in
line with the Road Map plan, we will be prepared to resume the talks from
the point where they ended under the previous government of Ehud Olmert."

Akiva Eldar also revealed this week that President Peres presented to U.S.
envoy George Mitchell as well as senior Palestinian officials and Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak his own plan to create a sovereign Palestinian state
before an agreement is reached over crucial final status issues.

So what do they have in common?

Neither apparently recognizes or appreciates that Israel is a democracy.

As a democracy we have periodic elections in which the electorate is given
the opportunity to express its will at the ballot box.

And when, as was the case in the last recent elections, an opposition party
ends up leading the ruling coalition, this is indicative that the nation has
expressed its desire for a change in policies.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered Abbas almost everything but the kitchen
sink. But it wasn't enough for Abbas so the talks failed.

When the head of the PA asserts that Prime Minister Netanyahu must agree to
the concessions Olmert offered, he is really saying that the Israeli voters
should be denied their right to impact policy at the ballot box.

And when President Shimon Peres goes over the heads of the democratically
elected Government of Israel to propose his own plan to world leaders he is
also essentially saying that he has absolutely no respect for the democratic
process.

Unfortunately, it appears that none of the other international actors has
indicated that this behaviour is in any way unnacceptable.

Now here is the irony: Their silence doesn't promote the "peace process" -
it hurts it because it discourages Palestinian flexibility at the
negotiating table.

The message to PA PM Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian
negotiating team should be "given the Israeli democratic process, there is
no guaranty that the deal you can cut in the future will be as generous as
the one you can cut today."

That's a message that promotes progress in negotiations.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il