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Clinton addresses Mideast peace process

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to hold separate talks with Palestian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Anchor Katy Clark speaks with David Makovsky of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process, about the message that Clinton is likely to deliver to the two leaders.

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KATY CLARK: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton turns to another challenging problem this weekend – Middle East Peace. She’s scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the United Arab Emirates Saturday. She’ll then fly to Israel for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. David Makovsky directs the project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. And David what’s the message Secretary Clinton will likely deliver to the Palestinians and Israelis this weekend.

DAVID MAKOVSKY: I don’t know if she’s in the message-delivering mode as she is more in the questioning mode which is is President Abbas on the Palestinian authority side genuine about holding elections early 2010. He issued a presidential decree that elections would be held. Hamas has said you know it would not participate and some say it’s a gambit by President Abbas to basically call Hamas as being unwilling to have elections and put Hamas on the defensive. The reason why this is important, and not just an internal Palestinian matter, is there’s a general assumption that if there are real elections basically it puts Senator Mitchell’s peace mission on hold.

CLARK: I’ve been reading comments from Mahmoud Abbas who’s been saying very little time remains to get the peace process back on track. What is the urgency now? Is it these looming, or possibly looming, elections?

MAKOVSKY: Yes. I mean the elections would stall the process. It would push it backward essentially. You know his term is basically up. Hamas we think is so keen on consolidating its authority in Gaza and it knows it’s not popular that I think it feels it cannot contest elections seriously. So that puts him in a very difficult position. Mainly you can’t have ballot boxes in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t cooperate. If he does just West Bank only elections you know some people think it diminishes his stature because he’s not seen as a national figure. My main point here is that it’s the domestic calculations are likely to overwhelm the peace calculations of the United States. And therefore I think Secretary of State Clinton is very wise to get a reading on what’s real because this has real implications for America.

CLARK: And I’ve also seen some comments from Saeb Erekat, head of the Palestinian negotiating team. He was warning of a danger of a third intifada. I’m wondering if this is a real fear.

MAKOVSKY: Look I think if you try and fail then an intifada is possible as we saw after the year 2000 when President Clinton tried and failed. And then that violence went on for four years. But I don’t think we’re in that position. What I think Saeb Erekat might be saying is let’s be careful whatever we propose is something we can all succeed at because the consequences of failure are profound.

CLARK: Now switching gears just a bit here. This week marked the 14^th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. President Obama plans to send a videotape message to Israel to run at a memorial ceremony tomorrow night. This appears to be an attempt to reach out to the Israeli public. I’m wondering how receptive they’re likely to be given Mr. Obama’s extremely low approval ratings in Israel right now.

MAKOVSKY: You’re correct that his approval rates are extremely low. It’s I think the only country in the world where they’re so low. Because the Israelis feel that they’re the one country he has not reached out to. So I think this is a first important step. He’ll be giving a speech in Washington on November 9^th where I think he’s also going to be addressing many of their concerns. And I think the hope of the administration is between these two speeches that they turn around this low dynamic. It’s critical that I think President Obama be seen the way President Clinton was seen – that he was somehow able to be seen as both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. That is a feat that President Obama has not been able to capture the way President Clinton did.

CLARK: David Makovsky’s latest book with co-author Dennis Ross is Myths, Illusion, and Peace. He’s a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

MAKOVSKY: Okay thank you very much.

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