Jan 26, 2010
Did the publication these past three days by Al Jazeera of more than 1600 heretofore secret documents blow the peace process to smithereens? In the eyes of a segment of the Palestinian community the revelations by Al Jazeera were tantamount to treason, but among what appears to be a much larger segment the revelations have damaged the credibility of both the United States and Fatah. So far I have managed to read only a few of the more widely quoted papers and skimmed summaries of a few dozen others. That said, I have found no revelations of significant concessions on the part of the Palestinian authority that had not already been a matter of public record, mostly in the widely published details of the Clinton Parameters of Decemember 2000 and the Geneva Accords of October 2003.
For a different perspective I went to the offices of the New America Foundation in Washington DC to hear Chas Freeman's opinions. Freeman articlulated his conclusion that the peace process was already dead long before these papers came to light. Not only does he say that the peace process died over 10 years ago, but the United States disqualified itself as a mediator and Fatah fatally discredited itself as a negotiator for the Palestinians, long before the revelation of the Palestine Papers.
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I am sure that events will get even more "interesting" in the next few days.
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