Israel’s proposal to hold municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was an auspicious beginning to the fifth round of bilateral talks that opened in Washington on Monday.
The absence of outright Palestinian rejection was another refreshingly upbeat development.
This latest round of talks, which was to end Thursday and be followed by a round in Rome, proceeded in a businesslike manner, without the acrimony that marred the previous sessions.
That does not signify by any means that a breakthrough between Israelis and Palestinians is in sight; nor is there any sign of a break in the rock-solid impasse that seems to have developed between the Israelis and their separate Syrian, Lebanese and Jordanian interlocutors.
The Arab side, particularly the Palestinians, is marking time until Israel’s parliamentary elections on June 23.
Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin, currently ahead in the polls, has promised an agreement on Palestinian autonomy in the administered territories “within six to nine months” after he takes office as prime minister.
The Palestinians therefore have a comfortable time frame in which to wait and see.
Observers here have detected relative moderation in the Palestinians’ conduct, if not their position, during this final Washington round. They ascribe it largely to pressure brought to bear earlier by the United States, Egypt and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Each of those parties is anxious to avoid a crisis that could precipitate a walkout by any delegation. They have therefore urged the Palestinians to focus on the issue at hand, Palestinian autonomy, and refrain from the public posturing that marked the previous sessions.
The Palestinians cooperated by bringing to Washington this week reasoned written comments on the broad autonomy plans presented to them at the last round of talks in March by the chief of the Israeli delegation, Elyakim Rubinstein.
In the interim, the Israelis came up with the idea of municipal elections, which Rubinstein presented in general terms Monday.
The plan drew a measured response from the Palestinians, a far cry from the earlier declamations by the Palestinian delegation’s spokeswoman, Hanan Ashrawi, who had flatly rejected the proposal in advance.
AN IMAGE-ENHANCING MOVE
The plan is understood to have originated with the Israel Defense Force’s Civil Administration, which controls the day-to-day lives of Palestinians in the territories.
It rests on the observation that while the intifada is waning somewhat in terms of popular unrest, clashes between the IDF and hard-core activists have intensified.
The Civil Administration believes that local elections in the territories would ease tensions and quiet the situation.
Israel’s political decision-makers were quick to see the image-enhancing potential for the incumbent government at home and abroad.
While the autonomy talks with the Palestinians have gotten nowhere, the local elections idea would be perceived as a step forward by Israeli voters and by friendly governments overseas.
Some seasoned observers see the Israeli proposal as a calculated effort to discredit the PLO-linked Palestinian negotiators by driving a wedge between them and the Islamic fundamentalist forces in the territories, which are gaining influence and popularity.
According to Danny Rubinstein, respected commentator of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, the Islamic forces, in discreet contacts with Israeli authorities, have welcomed the idea of municipal elections.
They are convinced they would do well in an electoral confrontation with the PLO-affiliated local politicians, especially in places like the West Bank city of Hebron.
Whatever the reason, the Palestinians in Washington found it politic this week not to reject the Israeli proposal. They said instead that they would take it into consideration.
PLAN’S FATE TIED TO JUNE VOTE
Here in Israel, the Labor Party has kept a low profile during these maneuverings. Rabin’s basic campaign theme has been that serious progress is impossible between the Likud government and the Palestinians, given Likud’s hard-line ideological stance.
Under Labor governments, elections were held twice in the territories. In 1972, traditionalist Arab mayors were retained in office without serious opposition.
In 1976, however, when Rabin was prime minister and Shimon Peres was defense minister, radicals with strong ties to the PLO swept the slate, except in Bethlehem.
They were removed from office by the Israeli authorities and replaced by IDF officers after the first Likud government took office in 1977.
But much has changed since then. Like it or not, the Likud government is negotiating indirectly with the PLO.
Many Israelis, moreover, view the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism as a more dangerous threat then the Palestinian nationalism of the PLO.
At any rate, the new idea of local elections is now “on the table.”
But its fate depends on the results of the Knesset elections in June.
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