Former Israeli negotiator discusses latest peace talks
Jewish News One, 11 January 2014
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are in motion, with intense American mediation. US Secretary of State John Kerry has made several visits to the region, including to Saudi Arabia, in order to advance the process. We spoke to Mr. Gilead Sher, who has served as an Israeli negotiator in previous governments to learn of his perspective on the latest developments.
- Mr. Sher, given your extensive experience in previous governments and in negotiations, do you believe in the sincerity of this latest round of peace talks?
Gilead Sher, Former Israeli Chief Peace Negotiator:
“I met with Abu Mazen about two weeks ago and I believe that he is sincere in looking at the prospects of such negotiations. I believe that Benjamin Netanyahu is also sincere in looking at the possibility of attaining an agreement of some kind with the Palestinians.
I am prudently optimistic in terms of the will of the parties to achieve something, maybe not an end of conflict, possibly not a finality to all claims. Certainly not the resolution to all the core issues. I believe that we should expect a kind of a lower bar of success here, namely a kind of an agreement or a set of understandings that would provide enough traction to continue negotiating.”
- What are the complex core issues at hand at the moment?
Gilead Sher, Former Israeli Chief Peace Negotiator:
“Both complex and interlinked. Jerusalem and the holy sites are interlinked with security and borders. Borders are intertwined with refugees. The core issues have not changed throughout the last twenty years of negotiations. They only became more complex for the parties to resolve. So what I would like to see is a series of interim, partial, transitional agreements that would gradually bring us to the point in which we can resolve all of them, not simultaneously.”
- This government has released Palestinian prisoners, terrorists, as a sign of a good will gesture, on the other hand it did not agree to concede to external pressures of halting the construction in the settlements. What does this show about the government's willingness to reach a long term agreement?
Gilead Sher, Former Israeli Chief Peace Negotiator:
“I believe it has to do with the preservation of the governmental coalition rather than with, I would say with direct interests of moving ahead towards a two state reality or towards a two state solution, and this kind of gestures that we are talking about, this is a bit marginal. The real stuff is negotiating the core issues and is actually providing the divorce process between Israelis and Palestinians in a way that would be as amicable as possible for the long term, and would actually secure Israel as the democratic nation state of the Jewish people. Secure, legitimate, based on fundamental values of human rights and equality.”
- Many Israelis do not believe in the possibility of a long term sustainable agreement at the moment, do you agree?
Gilead Sher, Former Israeli Chief Peace Negotiator:
“I believe that it is for the benefit of Israel in terms of its national security, its vital interests, its core credo to disassociate and disengage from the Palestinians. With an agreement, hopefully, or without an agreement. Because I believe that for the sake of preserving a state which is the democratic state, which is the nation state of the Jewish people with a Jewish majority for generations to come, we need to delineate a boundary between the Palestinian people and Israel.”
Many Israelis do not believe there is much of a process to be discussed and do not wish to be disappointed. However, they are hopeful that the current talks will yield some kind of results even if for the short term. And so, cautious optimism is definitely the term of the day.
Sivan Raviv, JN1, Israel
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