| Chapter 1: | The Price of Failure |
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issues—which are never put in terms of human security but always in terms of military security—are the business of the United States. Even after the Obama victory, American generals have been directly responsible for overseeing security arrangements.
I suggest that although ultimately the process must be bilateral, there are regional and international implications for the unresolved Israel-Palestine conflict that are so grave that the international community cannot absolve itself of responsibility. The answer to the question on who is going to promote the conflict's resolution may center on Israelis and Palestinians, but there must be an immediate, ongoing, persistent international presence in every single aspect of this process. Most of the conversation, obviously, focuses on what the United States is going to do. I respect that. But the outside-of-the-box approach suggests considering bringing the Europeans back on board. We must also think, in light of the Arab Peace Initiative, about what the Arab League can do, because we have never before been in a situation in which the Arab League offered Israel what it has dreamed of for over sixty years. And if what is being suggested is a full normalization of relations with Israel in return for the creation of a viable Palestinian state and peace with Syria, we should think about how the Arab world can constructively be brought into the process. That is procedural matter number one.
The second procedural issue relates to the mode of negotiations. Because it is so important, I will discuss this further. To date, all these negotiations have been secret; Even when it seemed as if no talks were taking place, many official interchanges occurred. Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, and Ahmed Qurieh (Abu Ala), the key Palestinian negotiator, had frequent conversations. Then Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Abu Mazen, the Palestinian president, also met frequently. There were separate teams working on economics, environment, and water issues that were meeting almost daily. What were they discussing? What understandings did they reach? I do not have the faintest idea. It is a “big secret” because the mode of negotiations is one of absolute secrecy. Diplomats will claim that this is what is needed. Diplomats, by the way, revel in secrecy and so do power seekers, because