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Israel’s internal hurdles to peace

Apr 14,2014 - Last updated at Apr 14,2014

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is often held hostage to the imperatives of Israel’s domestic politics.

An Israeli premier cannot push for peace persistently and secure his or her political survival at the same time.

Less than two decades ago, Yitzhak Rabin lost his life because he signed the Oslo accords.

To be sure, today’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have an uphill battle to convince his partners in the government to sign up to any future deal. Key members of the Israeli government are creating hurdles to further constrain Netanyahu.

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni severely criticised Naftali Bennett, the minister of the economy and the head of the Bayit Yehudi Party, for his threats to quit the coalition over the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In her words, “Bayit Yehudi represents those who are trying to prevent the [peace] process from us. These are the same ideological views that gave birth to the Yitzhar rioters who are trying to prevent an accord.”

It is not that the Israeli government has disagreements only with its Palestinian counterpart over a possible deal on prisoners’ release. For Livni, it is a battle with Bennett as well.

“We are trying to put Israel on the world map and in doing so, we are facing a complex battle with Bennett,” she said.

It remains to be seen whether Bennett’s threat is real. But he is not alone in opposing the proposed deal to release Palestinian prisoners.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of Yisrael Beiteinu, pledged that he would not approve the deal either.

For Lieberman, Bennett’s threat to quit the government is not real. He argued that Bennett could still oppose the deal while keeping his party in the ruling coalition.

Lieberman may suspect that Bennett’s possible departure from the government could lead to early elections.

Key to any future success of peace negotiations is the proposed deal.

For the Palestinian side, it is a make-or-break situation. 

Under the US-brokered deal that jump-started the peace talks in July, Israel pledged to release the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners.

The deal included the release of 104 Arabs imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo peace accords as a quid pro quo for the Palestinians’ not pressing for their statehood claims at the United Nations.

But the peace talks ran aground last month after Israel reneged on its promise to release the prisoners.

The Palestinian reaction was quick. The Palestinian Authority applied for membership in several United Nations agencies and treaties.

Still, a deal is not unlikely. The release of prisoners will enable the United States to exert more effort in the stalled process. In exchange for the release of the prisoners, the Palestinian Authority is to extend the April 29 negotiation deadline to the end of the year and the American administration will release Jewish-American spy Jonathan Pollard.

The future of the peace negotiations relies on Netanyahu’s ability to deliver on his promise of releasing the prisoners.

His problem now is not with the Palestinians, but with his own coalition.

Failure to convince a majority of his coalition to support the deal would make him weaker internally.

Equally important, other sides to the conflict will then realise that regardless of who is in the premiership seat, Israel can no longer produce a peace coalition. 

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