Israeli Executives, Public Figures Announce Peace Proposal
April 06, 2011, 11:06 AM EDTBy Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger
(Updates with Perry quote in third paragraph, analyst in fifth.)
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli business executives and public figures, including the former heads of the Shin Bet and Mossad intelligence agencies, proposed a regional peace plan, saying it was critical that the government revive negotiations.
The proposal calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and outlines a framework for Jerusalem that would allow the city to be a capital for both Palestinians and Israelis. It includes a plan for peace agreements with Syria and Lebanon.
Israel “no longer has the privilege of sitting around doing nothing,” Jacob Perry, a former director of the Shin Bet internal security service said at a press conference in Tel Aviv today. “The government of Israel and its leader must take the initiative.”
Palestinian officials have said they are preparing to seek recognition of statehood from the United Nations General Assembly in September, regardless of whether peace talks are moving forward. The proposal also comes as a wave of pro- democracy movements sweep through the Arab world, which has already led to the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who often mediated between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Ongoing silence is exacting a diplomatic price from Israel that it can’t continue to pay,” said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel. “This initiative is the opening move of a campaign of public pressure to put Netanyahu on the spot to get a proposal of his own on the table.”
Increased Urgency
U.S. President Barack Obama said yesterday that Mideast turmoil increases the urgency for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks fell apart within a month of starting last year. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he wouldn’t continue the U.S.-brokered negotiations unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended a 10- month freeze on settlement construction, a condition the Israeli leader rejected.
Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on today’s plan. Members of the group said Netanyahu, who has said that Palestinian statehood should only come through a negotiated peace agreement, has received a copy of the initiative.
“This is the kind of program that Netanyahu is extremely unlikely to accept,” Spyer said. “It is impossible that he would accept anything like this prior to negotiations.”
Not Official
Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh said that while every peace initiative should be encouraged, this one wasn’t official.
“This comes at a time when the Israeli government has no initiative whatsoever,” Shtayyeh said in a telephone interview. “The Israelis must sign on to this initiative.”
The Israel-Peace Initiative, as the plan is called, is being promoted by Perry; former Mossad Chief Danny Yatom; retired Lieutenant-General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, the former military chief of staff; and Idan Ofer, a shareholder and former chairman of Israel Corp., a holding company with interests in shipping, chemicals and charging stations for electric cars.
The plan calls for Israel accept as a framework for starting negotiations the 2002 Arab initiative that proposed peace between Israel and Arab countries once Israel withdraws from the land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Those territories include the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
Ofer said that in business dealings abroad “it was made clear to me more than once that if the situation here does not improve, Israeli companies that employ thousands of people will be hurt.”
Netanyahu leaves today for Berlin, where he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss efforts to revive peace talks.
--With assistance from Tanya Habjouqa in Jerusalem. Editors: Heather Langan, Louis Meixler.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Tel Aviv at gackerman@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.
