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Seizing the Moment in Israeli-Palestinian Relations: How to Sustain the Cease-Fire and Revitalize the Road Map

Martin Indyk and Tamara Cofman Wittes (Saban Center for Middle East Policy-Brookings Institution) - Six key tasks must be accomplished in the next few months to translate today's hesitant rapprochement into a revitalized Israeli-Palestinian peace process: * Stabilizing the Cease-Fire: Converting the current tentative calm into an indefinite, stable, and mutual cessation of violence with clear rules and procedures to sustain it. * Consolidating the New Palestinian Authority: Enhancing the PA's capabilities to enable its exercise of effective authority over all territories and factions under its control. * Making Gaza Disengagement a Success: Converting a unilateral and uncoordinated Israeli plan into a closely coordinated process that produces noticeable benefits to Israelis and Palestinians alike, binds the PA with commitments to prevent Gaza from becoming a platform for attacks on Israel after disengagement, and enables the PA to reestablish itself as a credible partner for the Israeli government. * Mobilizing International and Arab Support for Progress: Ensuring that maximal support for Israeli-Palestinian re-engagement is developed, expressed in tangible form, and sustained throughout the period necessary to move to final status talks. * Strengthening the Political Center on Both Sides: Creating the environment and enabling conditions in which extremists are marginalized, leaders are empowered to negotiate, and Israelis and Palestinians can begin to discuss the difficult compromises that will make a final status agreement possible. * Connecting Disengagement to the Road Map and Final Status: Providing a clear diplomatic and legal framework that links the Israeli disengagement and PA assertion of authority in Gaza to the resumption of a diplomatic process leading to final status talks and a permanent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Martin S. Indyk is director and Tamara Cofman Wittes is a research fellow at the Saban Center.
2005-03-10 00:00:00
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