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Talking Points for September

RESOURCES

TAKING ACTION

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT

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Goal

To convey that cooperation, not unilateralism, is the path to peace. Israelis wants peace, and have proven it. Israel seeks a responsible peace partner in the Palestinian leadership.

OVERALL POINTS

1. Direct negotiations between responsible partners on both sides are the only proven route to peace.

• A negotiated settlement is possible. Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and both sides will prosper.
• The successful peace treaties between Israel and Egypt (1978) and Israel and Jordan (1994) were the result of direct negotiations.
• The 1993 Oslo Agreement; 1995 Interim Agreement; 1998 Wye River Memorandum; and 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum show that the Israelis and Palestinians are capable of success when directly negotiating with one another.

2. Israel has proven itself to be peace-seeking and willing to make painful sacrifices. Peace negotiations with Palestinians have achieved progress at times; however, they have been stalled by violence and unwillingness by Palestinian leadership to negotiate and compromise.

• In 1978, Israel agreed to withdraw from all of Sinai in return for a promise of peace from Egypt.
• At Camp David 2000, Israel offerered to evacuate 100 percent of Gaza and 97 percent of the West Bank, dismantle most settlements and allow the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Arafat rejected the deal without making a counter-offer.
• In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all its troops and Jewish families from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in hopes that the area with flourish under PA leadership and build confidence that territorial compromise in the West Bank will lead to peace. Instead, Hamas seized control of Gaza and began shelling nearby Israeli towns.
• In 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered PA President Mahmoud Abbas more than 90 percent of the West Bank, a Palestinian capitol in East Jerusalem with the Old City of Jerusalem as a shared district. Additionally, more than 5,000 Palestinian refugees were to be allowed back into Israel proper. However, like his predecessor Arafat, Abbas refused the offer.
• In 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a 10-month building freeze in the West Bank to meet Palestinian demands to spark new negotiations. However, when the freeze expired in September 2010, the PA walked out of talks.

3. Responsible partners can be the only participants in direct negotiations.

• The inclusion of the terrorist organization, Hamas, in the Palestinian government is unacceptable.
• Hamas is one of 48 organizations classified as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” by the U. S. State Department – the same designation given to Al Qaeda – and whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
• The United States and the rest of the “Quartet” (European Union, Russian and the United Nations) must urge the Palestinian government to cease its relationship with Hamas.
• The Palestinian Authority (PA) must demonstrate that it is a responsible partner by ceasing incitement, showing consistency between the messages it communicates to Israel, the U.S., and its own people.

Unilateral Declaration of statehood

4. Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September by unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state will not bring about the permanent peace which is only achievable by direct negotiations.

• The declaration of a unilateral state runs counter to previous negotiated and signed agreements.
  • According to the 'Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip' signed on September 28, 1995: "Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.” (the same statement appears in the 1998 Wye River Memorandum and 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum.)

5. The President of the United States, the U.S. Congress, roughly half the European Union, and many world leaders oppose the unilateral declaration of a state.

6. The Palestinian people will suffer if their government loses the generous aid given by the United States and other countries that oppose a unilaterally declared state.

CONNECTION TO AMERICA

7. It is in the best of interest of Americans and people all over the world for the current conflict to be brought to a peaceful, permanent end. Without permanent peace, the region will continue to be in a precarious state.

8. Over time, direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinian will lead to less U.S. involvement in the conflict.

9. The American government plays an important role in any final peace negotiations, as it did during the negotiations between Israel/Egypt and Israel/Jordan, as well as all negotiations with Palestinians up until this point.

The above is adapted from RealPartnersRealPeace.com