Apr 11, 2017

The most prominent Israeli politician with a chance of replacing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that peace with the Palestinians will take decades. Speaking at a rally in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, on March 26, Yair Lapid, chairman of the center-right Yesh Atid, said “Any negotiations with Palestinians would need to be conducted in very slow stages.” By “slow” he meant 15-20 years.

Earlier, Israel’s current opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, had called for a decade of calm before any peace process could bear fruit. The Israeli Labor Party leader on Feb. 23 outlined a 10-point plan that called for 10 years of absolute calm on the west bank of the Jordan River, anchored and supervised by a UN Security Council resolution, before a Palestinian state could be truly independent.

It is not clear why such extended periods are deemed necessary before implementation of the internationally accepted two-state solution. While some might argue that the above statements were made in light of the growing expectation of early Israeli elections, according to some politicians and analysts, there is no doubt that the politicians making them believe that they are what the Israeli public wants to hear.

The long years that these politicians are advocating ironically correspond with two other long-term US-led plans to help Israel defend itself. The Iran deal, sponsored by the United States and the international community, constrains the nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic for 15 years. In September 2016, the administration of former US President Barack Obama signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel, in which the United States committed to supporting Israel with a huge, $38 billion military grant over a 10-year period.

Of note, 10 years is also the length of time that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir had reportedly suggested in June 1992, in the wake of the Madrid peace conference, that he would drag out peace talks (had he remained in office). So far, the talks over the last 25 years have largely been fruitless, the exception being the Oslo Accords, which allowed the return of the Palestinian leadership to the West Bank but also resulted in the tripling of Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories.