In Los Angeles Times interview, Defense Minster says Israel must regain initiative by presenting a ‘daring’ offer to the Palestinians in order to avoid global isolation.
Israel is strong enough and confident enough to make necessary Mideast peace concessions, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, adding that Jerusalem must present a "daring" peace offer to the Palestinians.
Barak’s interview came amid a lengthy peace-talks stall, one that has ushered pessimistic remarks from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders as to the future of peace negotiations, and in the face of a Mideast strategy speech by U.S. President Barack Obama planned for later Thursday.
After asked if Israel would be perceived as "weak" if it would make Mideast peace concessions, Barak told the Los Angeles Times in the interview released Thursday that "Israel is the strongest country for 1,000 miles around Jerusalem, and we should be self-confident enough not to lose sight of what has to be done."
"What we need is a sense of direction and a readiness to take decisions. We have to do it," Barak said, adding elsewhere: "It’s clear to me that Israel at this junction should act and not be paralyzed by the uncertainties, low visibility, volcanic eruptions and historical earthquake around us."
The defense minister reiterated Israel’s need to take initiative, saying: "We need to put [something] on the table, whether behind closed doors to the president or in public. We need to be ready to move toward a daring proposal that will include the readiness to deliver an answer to all the core issues."
Asked if he felt such concession would work in establishing peace, Barak said that he couldn’t say "for sure it will work. It probably won’t. But we have a responsibility and a commitment to move."
"We should make it genuine, that if an agreement cannot be achieved at this juncture, the responsibility is on the other side’s shoulders. Probably along the way we will find that while we are trying to find a breakthrough for a fully-fledged agreement, only an interim one can be achieved. So let’s find it," he added.
The defense minister also said that Israel was prepared for "all three possibilities: a breakthrough agreement, stalemate or an interim agreement. All three are better than the alternative, which might lead to growing isolation of Israel."
Later in the Los Angeles Times interview, Barak gave his estimate as to the level of Palestinian readiness to strike a peace deal, saying: "It’s more complicated for them than in the past."
"But I think [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] seems to me to be at least sincere. I can’t read his gut. [Prime Minister Salam] Fayyad is sincere. They are doing a good job in this bottom-up building of embryonic state institutions. There is more freedom, more normalcy, more security and a much lower level of terror than in any previous years."
Barak was also asked whether Israel was closer or further away from striking a deal with the Palestinians than it had been during 2000 talks his administration led in Camp David. To that, the defense minister said: "We’re closer."
"We found that [former Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat was not focusing on solving 1967 and the occupation, but on 1947 and the very establishment of Israel," Barak said, adding that some "people on the right wing believe that’s the case right now. I don’t buy it."
"The other side has changed. [Abbas] and Fayyad say loud and clear, if there is an agreement that meets their minimum demands, they are ready to sign an end of conflict and claims," the defense minister said, adding: "That’s exactly what Arafat rejected."
The defense minister also dismissed comments by those who reject all contacts with an upcoming Fatah-Hamas unity cabinet, saying: "We cannot say on the one hand that [Abbas] is not a real partner because any negotiations would be, at most, an agreement that you put on the shelf because he doesn’t control half his people, and then on the other side, when he tries to resume control [of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip], to say, ‘Now they are lost.’"
"It’s not lost. But we should say loud and clear, if and when they form a technocratic government, we expect the government, Fatah and mainly Hamas, to be ready to explicitly accept … recognition of Israel, acceptance of all previous agreements and denouncing terror," the defense minister added.