The world's media remains rightly skeptical about the prospects of a durable peace agreement emerging from the current Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, but the sketchy reports emerging from Washington indicate that both sides are pleased with what has been decided upon thus far and are optimistic about future negotiations.
Not even the most wildly optimistic person expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas to emerge from the current talks with anything like a signed peace agreement. The best that can be hoped for from the present negotiations is the establishment of a framework in which additional talks can take place in order to hammer out some sort of peace deal over the course of the next year.
It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas have agreed, upon their return to the Middle East, to meet with one another every two weeks in order to keep the talks moving. Egypt and Jordan are certain to facilitate this, and American officials seem likely to remain involved at all levels. The one-year deadline, which many commentators decried when it was first announced, seems to have become a centerpiece of the peace process.
It is no going to b easy, to say the least. Borders of a future Palestinian state, guarantees of Israeli security, the future of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, proper access by both sides to reliable sources of water, and a host of other complicated issues will continue to bedevil the negotiations. Underlying it all, of course, are decades of hostility and hatred burned into the respective populations by war and conflict.
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from these talks, which have had such low expectations, is that the leadership of both sides seems genuine in their protestations of desiring peace. Whether or not the good will generated by these talks can withstand the coming onslaught by those who do not want peace, Israeli and Palestinian alike, remains to be seen.
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