AhlulBayt News Agency - According to a Palestine peace initiative suggested by France, the Palestinian and Israeli sides were called to hold a peace conference aiming at reaching compromises between the two sides, as the two states of Palestine and Israel are demanded to be established based on the border lines of 1967. Furthermore, Paris has threatened that it would recognize an independent Palestinian state should the peace conference faces a failure.
Calling the French proposal as confusing, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has said that the plan was doomed to fail because when the Palestinians know that there is a backing for them from Europe, they would not take any action for success of the negotiations. Welcoming the France’s intention to recognize Palestine as an independent state once the peace process fails, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the international community to protect the Palestinian people against the Israeli crimes. There are two interesting points regarding Paris’ peace initiative and the reactions it has drawn:
First is the rejection of the plan by the Israeli regime’s officials who usually oppose such suggestions. This Israeli opposition could have a couple of reasons at the present circumstances:
1. France’s Palestine peace plan is part of a general approach that Europe is currently adopting about the Palestinian cause and the French threat of recognizing an independent Palestinian state in case the talks fail is in line with policies the EU is following, which include opposing the settlement building as well as boycotting the goods produced in the Israeli settlements.
2. The US' standings accord with those of the EU or at least they are not at odds with them. Such a Washington’s stance is also highlighted by the US ambassador to the Israeli regime Daniel Shapiro who said that Washington was opposed the Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
3. The French initiative is coming while the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has disparaged the Israeli settlement construction policy and endorsed the Palestinians’ intifada. Resistance in the face of occupation is a human right, added Ki-moon. However, according to the Israeli regime’s viewpoint, such remarks showcase an international opposition to Tel Aviv’s policies while the regime believes that major obsession of the EU must be the so-called Islamic terrorism which is posing a threat to the regime.
4. The Israeli regime opposes the French peace initiative because it is running counter to the tendency the Israelis have adopted in the recent years to tell the world that the factor of tension and crisis in West Asia region is not Tel Aviv, rather, it could be found in the Arab governments’ policies. The Israeli prime minister has tried to imply, at the recent Davos summit, that even the Arab countries no longer hold any commitment to the Palestinian issue, therefore, Europe should not be obsessed with the case.
The second point is the reaction the Arab states have shown to the French Peace initiative. In fact, the Arab countries and media have not covered the French proposal, believing that at the present time the Palestinian issue is not a priority as they are engaged further in the regional crises and conflicts. The Arab world’s media silence over issues which have recently taken place between the Israeli regime and the EU- including France’s peace initiative and boycott of products made in the Israeli settlements- is an indicative of the fact that at the current conditions the Arab governments are seeking normalization of ties with Tel Aviv. Relying on the principle “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, the Arab officials are trying to, on the one hand, show their hostility to the Islamic Republic of Iran and, on the other hand, justify for their nations their convergence with Israeli regime.
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source : Al Waqt News
Wednesday
24 February 2016
9:13:37 AM
736802
France’s Palestine peace plan is part of a general approach that Europe is currently adopting about the Palestinian cause and the French threat of recognizing an independent Palestinian state in case the talks fail is in line with policies the EU is following, which include opposing the settlement building as well as boycotting the goods produced in the Israeli settlements.