International troops bound for West Bank?
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A report in a Jordanian newspaper suggesting the Palestinians want to see an international force deployed along the borders of any future Palestinian state has sent ripples around the diplomatic world over the weekend.
The newspaper Al-Ghad quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying that he will enter direct peace talks with Israel if the Israelis accept in principle the deployment of foreign troops around the borders of what are presently referred to by the international community as the occupied territories.
Some journalists are suggesting this idea was already discussed and agreed during talks between Abbas and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, before the negotiations ended in December 2008.
The imperative
Incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants direct talks to commence as soon as possible. He is facing a possible domestic coalition crisis if there are no face-to-face negotiations prior to September 26 when Israel's 10-month partial settlement freeze terminates.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned on Monday that the moratorium on building in the West Bank will not be extended. Netanyahu knows that if he ignores Lieberman, several hawkish parties may quit his government. As a result he wants the direct talks to be in place before September 26.
However, Abbas is insisting that he receive something concrete from Israel before committing to sitting in the same room.
Meanwhile, analysts and journalists have already largely ruled out several possible goodwill gestures that Netanyahu would have to make, right now the idea of the deployment of an international force is gaining momentum.
Role for NATO?
There is some media speculation that earlier this month Abbas has suggested NATO take on the role. He is said to have formulated the idea in cooperation with the U.S. envoy to the Middle East and former senator George Mitchell.
The reason the Palestinians are suggesting the deployment of such a force is that they hope it would answer Israel's security concerns about a Palestinian state and at the same time guaranteeing that Israel cannot deploy its soldiers on what would be the Palestinian border with Jordan.
Israel continually raises its concern that a Palestinian state could become a platform for militants to launch attacks against the Jewish state. Should there be no oversight of the Palestinian- Jordanian border, unwanted elements could enter the Palestinian areas unimpeded, Israel said.
In order to allay Israeli fears about the competence of such an international force, the model would have to be chosen very carefully.
Israel would not be able to accept a United Nations deployment akin to UN Interim Force in Lebanon, according to Shlomo Brom, director of the Program on Israel-Palestinian Relations at The Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv University.
"The UN is a political body and we know how it works and who has power there. We know about the problems Israel has with this political body," Brom said.
Speaking to Xinhua on Monday he proposed two alternatives that he said could prove satisfactory to Israel.
