Secret Israeli-Palestinian meeting in Jordan to ‘break the ice’ in peace talks, with EU officials' involvement

By Yossi Lempkowicz

Media has reported that Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, who was appointed Israel’s negotiator with the Palestinians, and his counterpart in the Palestinian Authority Saeb Erekat met secretly in Amman last week to ‘’break the ice’’’ in trying to restart peace talks.

The meeting last Thursday (23 July) between Silvan Shalom and Saeb Erekat (pictured), which was agreed by both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, follows a phone call between the two leaders, the first since more than a year.

Since the fourth Netanyahu government was formed in May, Silvan Shalom, a former Foreign Minister, has been saying that if the Palestinians were serious and willing to hold a true negotiation without preconditions, they will find a real partner in Israel.

Shalom said that confidence-building measures between Israel and the Palestinians should be based on reciprocity. He said it did not make sense for Israel to take confidence-building measures on the one hand while the Palestinians turns to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and to FIFA on the other hand to continue making unilateral moves against Israel.

What is interesting is that senior European Union officials as well as officials in the Jordanian government were involved in organizing the talks.

Fernando Gentilini, the EU special representative for the Middle East peace process, suggested holding the meeting in Brussels. But Erekat proposed Amman as a neutral venue for talks.

Shalom and Erekat agreed to report back to Netanyahu and Abbas without a detailed discussion, and to set a next meeting for the near future.

On a visit in Riyadh on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU believes that Saudi Arabia ‘’has a key role to play, in particular in reviving the Arab Peace Initiative that could be an important element of the way forward to restart the (peace) process that at the moment is not in place.’’

She said she discussed with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir ’’ways of cooperating together with other friends and partners in the region and in the international scene, such as the United States, the UN, Russia, other key Arab countries, to recreate the conditions for a Middle East Peace Process to bring concrete results on the ground and the creation of the Palestinian State on one side and on the other the right of Israel to live in security.’’

At a meeting in Brussels last week, EU Foreign Ministers agreed to try to create an “international support group”, a broad, UN-backed coalition, to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The EU wants to open the door to more countries to get involved.

Federica Mogherini has expressed the EU’s willingness to play a more active role in the Middle East peace process.

In the meantime, , a Knesset member from the opposition Zionist Union unveiled his framework for a peace deal.

Hilik Bar heads in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, the Caucus to Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Summarising the 25-page document to a conference of 450 people, Bar said that the plan would “protects Israel’s vital security interests, keeps Jerusalem united, solves the Palestinian refugee problem outside of Israel’s borders, leaves the majority of settlers in their homes, strengthens Israel’s position in the world.”

Bar’s framework calls on Israel to first recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations, so long as the Palestinian Authority (PA) agrees not to use such status to undermine bilateral talks and accepts the concept of two nation states. Negotiations would then ensue over borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security arrangements. In addition to direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, Bar envisages that Israel would simultaneously enter into dialogue with other Arab countries and issue a formal response to the Arab Peace Initiative.

Bar’s plan would see Jerusalem remain physically undivided, but become the capital of two states, while borders would be drawn which would keep most Israeli settlers in their homes, with the option to become residents or citizens of a Palestinian stated. Meanwhile, Palestinians would be granted “privileged access” to places of worship, tourism, academia and trade in Israel.

Although stopping short of endorsing Bar’s plan, opposition leader Isaac Herzog praised Bar’s initiative and said it was a counterweight to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “fear-mongering slogans like there is no partner or no way to bring peace.”