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Drafted by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Department of International
Relations, University of Sussex
Israeli and Palestinian Sources Concur: Israel Made War
Inevitable
The Omega Institute (OI), which works closely
with the Institute for Policy Research for Development (IPRD), has
learned from Israeli and Palestinian sources that just prior to the
current crisis, senior Hamas leaders were in active dialogue with
Israeli religious leaders in a round of bilateral peace
negotiations. Israeli negotiators included Rabbi Menachem Froman,
former deputy leader and co-founder of the Israeli Settler movement
Gush Khatif; Rabbi David Bigman, head of the liberal religious
Kibbutz movement Yeshiva at Ma’ale Gilboa; and Yitzhak Frankenthal,
founder of the Arik Institute. Ongoing negotiations had resulted in
a breakthrough peace “understanding”, which was to be announced at a
press conference in Jerusalem to mark the launching of an
extraordinary peace initiative. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert had
been briefed extensively about the initiative by Frankenthal. Also
due to attend the conference were Khaled Abu Arafa, the Palestinian
Cabinet Minister for Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhamed Abu Tir, senior Hamas
Member of the Palestinian Parliament, and other senior Palestinian
delegates.
The meeting was to announce a joint
Israeli-Palestinian call for the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit
who had been abducted by Hamas in Gaza, along with proposals for the
beginning of the release of all Palestinian prisoners. These
measures were to precipitate unprecedented new peace negotiations on
a framework peace agreement, drawn on the 1967 borders. The presence
of Palestinian Cabinet Officers and senior Israeli religious leaders
in contact with the Prime Minster was to underline the seriousness
of this peace proposal on both sides.
Just hours before the meeting was due to start,
the Israeli Shin Bet internal Security Service arrested Abu Tir and
Abu Arafa and warned them not to attend the meeting, under threats
of detention. The meeting, which offered a major opportunity to
obtain Shalit’s release and launch a new framework for peace, was
thrown into disarray. The next day, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)
invaded Gaza, and the day after both Abu Tir and Abu Arafa were
abducted by Israeli forces, along with a third of the Palestinian
Cabinet, provoking a predictable escalation of violence.
Israel simultaneously began conducting covert
incursions on to Lebanese territory, provoking Hizbollah’s capture
of two IDF soldiers. Credible sources confirm that the soldiers were
not abducted on Israeli territory, but inside Lebanon. Like the
scuppered peace negotiations, Western officials have ignored this,
and misinformed the media. However, some reports corroborate the
sources. Israeli officials, for instance, informed Forbes (12.7.06)
that “Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes
Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift
reaction from Israel.”
“The revelations show that Palestinian and
Lebanese actors were not principally responsible for the escalation
of the current conflict”, said OI Director Graham Ennis. “Contrary
to the misinformation disseminated by the Whitehouse and Whitehall,
Israel vetoed unprecedented peace proposals that would have
initiated a promising new framework for serious negotiations, and
went on to provoke Palestinian and Lebanese groups into
retaliations, that now threaten to escalate into a dangerous
regional conflict.”
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