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Letter by Ambassador Shoval on the Occasion of Rosh Hashanah 1998/5759 September, 1998

September, 1998

Dear Friend,

Although I am sure that we shall have many opportunities to meet personally, I thought it might be a good idea to write to you from time to time and share with you some thoughts about the issues concerning us all. But, first of all: L'Shana Tova to you, your family, your friends and community!

At the time I write this letter it is still unclear if the latest efforts to break the impasse in the peace process with the Palestinians have been successful or not, but I would like to bring you up to date both on the situation until now and on the possible developments in the coming months.

As you know, talks with the Palestinians were at a virtual standstill for many months and, although Israel did make an effort to achieve a measure of progress, at least on some specific items (e.g.: the Palestinian port, the industrial park, the airport, etc.) the Palestinians seemed to be more interested, for obvious political purposes (i.e.: pressure from the US) to create an atmosphere of perpetual crisis.

Anyway, when the US Administration announced its initiative to get the ball rolling again, the Palestinians were quick to claim acceptance of this initiative-- although only "in principle". While the Israeli leadership was deliberating the implications of the United States initiative-especially in the context of security and our unhappy experience in the past with Palestinian non-compliance with commitments and promises-there was a growing tendency, especially in the media, sometimes abetted by statements from different sources, as if Israel was dragging its feet on the matter.

I think this perception was unfair or at least uninformed, not only because of our bad experience with the Palestinians in the past-but even more so because any responsible Israeli leadership would exercise extreme caution on decisions that affect our security, perhaps our very survival.

During this period, Israel never wavered in its commitment to advance the peace process, and once the different options had been thoroughly examined, the Prime Minister came to a decision that no effort should be spared to get the deal of the so-called second redeployment (the famous 13%) done-provided this time the Palestinians would finally live up to their commitments. Don't get too confused about the matter of the "nature preserve" (--the 3% of the land and of the total 13%--) it's not about lions and giraffes, but rather about ascertaining that territory which is adjacent to Jewish population centers will not be used by the Palestinians for purposes which would jeopardize their safety. By the way, the United States and the Israel reached a closer understanding on the complexities involved and on the roadmap for implementing an agreement. Therefore, the onus at this stage is squarely on the Palestinians.

I don't want to bore you with details, but the concept which is agreed upon is that there should be something that I would describe as a sort of "balance sheet"-or in other words, every time Israel hands over land, the Palestinians will by then have fulfilled their part of the bargain-like dismantling the Hamas terrorist bases and infrastructure, handing over illegal arms, reducing the number of Palestinian "policemen" from today's figure of 40,000, to what had been agreed upon in Oslo (24, 000), arresting terrorists, ending incitement, etc.

As part of this deal the US is negotiating a document which relates to the security aspects of the whole matter, and on this too-at least so far-the Palestinians have not yet been sufficiently cooperative, but we shall wait and see. All these things, by the way, had been promised by the Palestinians several times before-in the Oslo Agreements, in a letter from Yasser Arafat to the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and as part of the Hebron Agreements of January 1997-alas, never to be fulfilled. In addition, we demand that the Palestinians finally abolish the hateful "Palestinian Charter" which calls for the destruction of Israel and which is taught in schools and summer camps, its message of hate imparted to the entire younger Palestinian generation.

Now, the interesting part is that in the bilateral talks between us and the Palestinians-with the US in-the-not-inactive-background-we had felt that there had actually been progress with our Palestinian interlocutors-and perhaps even more than mere progress, but actually, with very few gaps in our respective positions remaining.

We, and I believe our American friends, were therefore doubly upset by the negative statements coming from the Palestinian side, i.e. that supposedly the process was stuck, that no progress had been achieved and so on and so forth. Why? Well, maybe the Palestinian pronouncements were tactical, meaning that they intended to bring about American pressure on Israel (which didn't work anymore, by the way, since the Administration knows full well that Israel is making a major effort to get the deal done), or perhaps in order, once again to use the General Assembly of the UN as a public stage against Israel-though there also exists the possibility that some people in the Palestinian leadership just don't want any agreement at all because they believe that they will then have a free hand, unencumbered by any agreement with Israel or the US, to make a unilateral declaration of independence in May 1999.

Let me just add that as we mark 20 years to the Camp David agreements and 5 years to Oslo, and whether one had in the past been a supporter or an opponent of the Oslo agreements, we can all be united in supporting Israel's quest for security and in opposing such unilateral Palestinian acts which would not only be a clear violation of the Oslo agreements, but would surely be a severe blow to our hopes to come to an agreement on the way Israelis and Palestinians will be able to live with each other in peace-permanently.

Maybe we shall be pleasantly surprised, perhaps those obstacles put by the Palestinians on the path towards permanent peace and security will be removed after all-but without any doubt the challenges of the coming months will be crucial to all of us.

Once again, best wishes for a happy New Year.

With warmest regards,

Sincerely Yours,

Zalman Shoval
Ambassador