The Middle East peace exercise

Yesterday evening, my regular keep-fit routine was disturbed. I could not get out of my head that 5 people had been slaughtered in their sleep, just a 2 hours drive away. That includes a 3 month old baby. Even now, it keeps buzzing in my mind – how can anybody be driven by such manic hate to do that?

 According to initial reports, a couple of people had climbed over a fence, which had set off an alarm. The security team treated it as a false alert. 2.5 hours later, 5 bodies, and time for the perpetrators to celebrate.

Most readers of this blog will not have heard of the incident. Drowned in the information avalanche from Japan’s awful tragedy and hidden by the news of the no-fly zone re Libya, there was no space left for coverage on Sky TV. (There was just room for Charlie Sheen on its website.)

And of course, these were 5 humans who lived in Itamar, known as a right-wing hot house in Israel’s West Bank. So, in the politically correct spin of 2011, the media can afford to ignore the story.

Obama was disgusted. Hague, France and others were similarly shocked. The Quartet condemned the incident “in the strongest possible terms”.

I am not an expert on the peace process and rarely comment about it directly, but it seems to me that it will take a mix of 4 elements to get it to work.

Israeli compromise: Israel has already ceded land to Egypt and to Jordan in return for peace. It had offers on the table to both the Palestinians and to Syria a decade ago,which were ignored.  And I dare say that while Netanyahu is most reluctant to give up anything else, he has declared repeatedly his willingness for a two-state solution.

Palestinian compromise: The Palestinians have pulled out of peace talks twice in the past decade, as they were approaching decision time. Chairman Arafat ran away from Clinton and Barak at Camp David in August 2000, seeking the path of Intifada. And two years ago, President Abbas could not bring himself to announce an agreement with Olmert. In fact, since the details were leaked, the Palestinian team has denied the whole story.

Support from Arab states: Former President Mubarak is no saint. As ruler of the strongest military regime in the Arab League, he kept the peace process alive with Israel. He enabled King Hussain of Jordan to join in, etc. He is now gone. Israel’s gas supply from Egypt has been “temporarily” shut off on a continuous basis. Iranian ships have sailed through the Suez Canal for the first time in years.

Western encouragement and neutrality: The commitment of Europe to find a just peace cannot be argued. Only last week, the EU’s most senior foreign affairs diplomat, Catherine Ashton issued another statement, demanding increased Israeli flexibility. Hague, Clinton et al did the same. However, as at Munich, it was difficult to find a similar demand from the other side.

Tragically, this flexibility has now been reflected in some poor patrolling and the death of five civilians. No generous comments of sympathy from Arab states and no return to the peace table by the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, I continue share something in common with Western diplomats. We have both put on a few kilos this week for lack of effort. I gave up on my exercises, and they have been sitting around again with the wrong peace formulas for the Holy Land.

Libya – a temporary distraction for the West in the Middle East

Sky News TV is leading a brilliant expose of Colonel Ghaddafi’s reign of torture. The UN has rushed to declare wide-ranging sanctions. Obama is appalled.

But where have these hordes of self-righteous protesters been until now? It is only a few months ago that CNN and Human Rights Watch were praising the regime in Tripoli.  In January 2003, Libya was elected to head the UN body on human rights and nobody muttered a word. The world was too busy condemning Israel, defending itself from Palestinian homicide bombers.

Back at Sky, they have issued an easy-to-understand map of the Middle East, explaining why so many people are revolting. No mention of the Palestinian territories. The economy in Gaza is clearly on the up, which ironically is damaging Hamas’s financial stranglehold. With amazing irony, the tourism industry in the West Bank has benefitted by the Egyptian turmoil.

So where is the West going to focus its attention next week? Well, actually if you look beyond the headlines, they are desperately trying to get back to the Palestinian Issue. Apparently, this is the main cause of instability in the Middle East, a unique spin designed to help decision makers ignore torture and riots in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Iran, and Yemen………to name but a few. 

Tony Blair has arrived in Jerusalem to help prepare for the next round of Quartet meetings and pressure Israel. Obama needs to balance helping Israel recently at the UN. According to a report in the Israeli newspaper, Yediot, the British Foreign Minister is considering recognising the state of Palestine, even if this is in direct contradiction to the commitment of both parties not to take unilateral one-sided measures.

But here’s that all misses the point.

Mohammad Bouazizi didn’t set himself on fire in December, thereby triggering Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution, to express solidarity with Palestinians. Instead, his suicide was a direct response to the economic and social strictures in his own country…..The conventional wisdom that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the mother of all problems in the region has now been exposed as nothing but a myth.

What gets me is that all the efforts of the West are based on the support of moderate regimes like Egypt and Oman and Jordan, which are supposed to help convince Israel that they will ensure that no Arab country will attack it again, once Palestinian land has been given up. But these governments no longer exist or have had to back track.

Be it Hague or Blair or Ashton or Obama or Clinton, can we believe that the word “oops” – with a large O – is in their vocabulary? Or does the Libya fiasco merely provide another distraction to learn how the Middle East really works?

Management, sports industry, & Middle East peace talks

All over the world, small – even medium sized - enterprises struggle to manage and forward themselves on minimal budgets and resources. Most are aware of the restrictions, while determined to seek the best future possible.

When it comes to sports management, somehow the laws of economics seem to adopt a new “elasticity”. And never was this more true than in Israel, September 2010. In today’s newspaper with a sports’ supplement of 11 pages, half were devoted to management fiascos, costing clubs – and the taxman - millions. For example: -

• The owners of Hapoel Tel Aviv football club are fighting amongst themselves, whilst blaming the coach, who in turn has publicly lambasted his players. Yet tonight the team has an important challenge match against European opposition, worth multi bucks to one and all. Quelle surprise, but the training has been limited, as more important issues are tackled (sic!).
• The leading Arab-owned football, Bnei Sachnin, has employed 5 coaches in 24 months, and wonders why nobody is tempted to take on the yet-again vacant position. The club is not bottom of the league, only because the one team below it has had points deducted.
•  Many of my Israeli friends have rarely regarded the national Olympic Committee as one portraying patriotism and determination. It is seen as a group of “jobs for the boys”. You feel that those few successes have  been achieved despite the bureaucracy.

It has emerged that Yael Arad, a former medalist, is to stand for the position of Chairperson. She is being opposed by the vested interests of old. So, I suppose that if she were to lose, Israel’s Olympic standards will remain where they are. At least the “boys” will be happy.

• The national swimming board is constantly refusing to pick Nimrod Shapira, one of the country’s realistic hopes for medals. Why? I don’t have the patience to follow the pathetic mismanagement of human relations. The Minister of Sport herself has been called in to sort out the children. Amazing!

Meanwhile, on the front page of the newspaper, I read how Prime Minister Netanyahu is concerned with trivial matters like peace negotiations and the safe future of the state. But if his cabinet cannot even supervise an Olympic committee or is prepared to interfere in the petty squabbles of swimmers, what chance……………..

Israel exporting cars to Iraq?

The Middle East throws up some pretty cuckoo stories. But when I read this morning that Israel is trying to export cars to Iraq, I knew that I was in immediate need of an extra coffee before proceeding.

I have since cross referenced the facts on the internet, and have found an Arab source confirming the item. 

The Israeli Ministry of Transportation has approved a new plan to export tens of thousands of used cars from Israel to Jordan and Iraq in order to reduce the size of the used car market in the country. Sources within the Israeli Ministry of Transportation conveyed on Sunday the goal is to sell more than 50,000 used car in Jordan and Iraq, which constitutes some 10 percent of the Israeli used car market.

Apparently, one of the main beneficiaries of the plan will be car hire companies, who are renowned for having problems selling off old cars. Lobbying groups at work behind the scenes?

Maybe, but there is a great deal of irony in the potential of this commercial act. Israel selling cars to the Arabs. Who would have thought it?

There again, 2010 will be noted for the year when Israel seems to have discovered significant quantities of oil. The Middle East has turned on its head.

Next you might get Palestinians and Israelis learning not to be afraid of each other. Is that one step too far to comprehend?