Arab concerns about dignity, honor and face-saving don’t count for much in Netanyahu’s world. From practically the moment he took office last June, he has been rubbing Palestinians’ noses in their own impotence, refusing to meet with Arafat for weeks, threatening thousands of Arabs with the loss of their right to live in Jerusalem and once even forcing Arafat’s helicopter to hover above the West Bank for 45 minutes until landing clearance was granted. It is Netanyahu’s style and tone, as much as his policies, that have poisoned Israel’s relations with the Palestinians and the Arab world at large.
With peace talks halted by angry mistrust on both sides, Netanyahu was scheduled to visit the United States early this week for consultations with Bill Clinton and another meeting with King Hussein, who was at the Mayo Clinic for prostate surgery. But his politics of humiliation may doom any effort to jump-start the negotiations. “There is a very arrogant way of discounting the other side,” charges Hanan Ashrawi, the minister for higher education in Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu says he does not intend to insult the Arabs or abort the peace process. He points out that some of his decisions, notably the agreement to withdraw Israeli troops from most of the West Bank city of Hebron, have advanced the peace process in ways that cost him support from within his own Likud bloc. Netanyahu blames Arafat for the collapse of the negotiations, charging that the Palestinian leader gave a “green light” for renewed terrorism after Israel’s controversial decision to build new Jewish housing at Har Homa, on the outskirts of Arab East Jerusalem. Netanyahu says talks cannot resume until Arafat cracks down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the militant Palestinian movements responsible for many suicide bombings.
Last week Netanyahu said Israel and the Palestinians should abandon the step-by-step process outlined in the 1993 Oslo accord and instead go for broke with six months of intensive negotiations on a complete peace agreement. “If we don’t manage that,” he added, “then Arafat, President Clinton and I can try to settle the Israeli-Palestinian dispute in a sort of Camp David summit.” The Americans and Palestinians reacted warily, in part because Arab-Israeli relations are so strained that success seemed unlikely. But continuing to work from the Oslo blue-print didn’t seem promising, either. Rather than building confidence, each step in that process has led to new recriminations.
Netanyahu’s high-handed manner has intensified the climate of confrontation. He has taken several unilateral steps that almost seemed calculated to enrage the Palestinians. At no time did his government even go through the motions of consulting Arafat or any Arab heads of state on explosive issues like the Har Homa project or the opening of an archeological tunnel near the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem last year. Some of Netanyahu’s critics say his insensitivity stems from the years he spent outside the Middle East, studying and working in the United States. “You must understand how people think in this region,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv. “Netanyahu lived for so many years in the United States, [and] if he understood, he would not be acting as he is.”
Administration officials say Clinton is angry at Netanyahu for pushing ahead with Har Homa. But the president is also said to be evenhandedly upset with Arafat for appearing to condone violence. “He may not have given a green light,” a senior U.S. official said of Arafat, “but he sure didn’t give a self-evident red light.” With feelings badly bruised on both sides, Washington will have to play a more active role in salvaging the peace negotiations. Short of another Camp David, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special Mideast envoy Dennis Ross will spend a lot of time persuading the two sides to just get along.
