Centrality of Middle East talks most striking aspect of speech

ANALYSIS:The resumption of the talks is one of the few foreign policy successes Obama can point to

THE MOST noteworthy thing about Barack Obama’s address to the UN general assembly yesterday was the centrality of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The White House showed the importance it attaches to the talks by releasing only excerpts pertaining to them in advance of the speech. The resumption of the talks less than a month ago is one of the few foreign policy successes Obama can point to. As he stressed himself, success is far from assured. But he has demonstrated that contrary to the Bush administration’s feeble and tardy attempt at Annapolis, he is serious about brokering peace.

In a telling incident, a wire agency took a photograph of Israel’s empty seats in the assembly hall during Obama’s speech. Israel’s absence was immediately construed as a boycott. Its representatives were in fact celebrating Sukkot, the end of the Jewish high holidays.

In 2009, Obama used the word “occupation” and insisted that Israel must “respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians”. This year, the language was more diplomatic, the speech painstakingly neutral between “friends of Israel” and “friends of the Palestinians”.

“He obviously endeavoured to balance the competing issues on both sides of the Middle East conflict,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.

At least three events this week showed how great a challenge the Obama administration faces. Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayad and Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon met at a donors’ meeting sponsored by the Norwegians. The Israelis wanted the Palestinians to sign off on a joint statement calling for two states for two peoples. But the Palestinians saw this as an attempt to trick them into recognising the “Jewish character” of a country where Palestinians comprise 20 per cent of the population, and the meeting ended in acrimony.

As a goodwill gesture, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly met American Jewish leaders, speaking to them on background. Each time, his remarks have been leaked to the press. After Abbas held such a meeting in New York, Israeli newspapers reported his statement that he would not abandon negotiations if Israel refused to prolong the partial moratorium on settlement building, thus undermining Abbas’s standing with his people.

The fatal shooting by a Jewish Israeli of Samer Sirhan, a Palestinian father of five, in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, and the rioting that followed on Wednesday, further illustrated the difficulties of the negotiations. Micheál Martin said Ireland had learned from its experience in the North the importance of “trying to ring-fence the talks from continuing conditionality. Once the talks begin, it’s important to keep them going”. Martin met Amr Musa, the former Egyptian foreign minister who heads the Arab League, immediately after Obama’s speech. “The Arab League are very keen that the moratorium is extended,” he said. “The Arab League wants the talks to succeed, but there’s a degree of scepticism that has to be bridged.”

Under the partial moratorium, Israel has planned the construction of 13,000 new housing units. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has proposed an even less rigorous slowdown in construction when the present moratorium expires at the weekend. The Obama administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should solve the settlement issue by moving quickly to draw up the borders of their future states.

Martin said the Arab League, like Ireland, was unhappy with progress towards easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip. After the former British prime minister Tony Blair negotiated with the Israeli government, foodstuffs were allowed into the Strip more easily. “But in terms of reconstruction, nothing is happening. We are not happy with the rapidity of progress at all,” Martin said. Obama did not mention the siege of Gaza in yesterday’s speech.

The Arabs resent Obama’s demand that they “take tangible steps” towards normalising relations with Israel. In recent years, Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco have made what they considered significant gestures, and say Israel conceded nothing to the Palestinians in return.