Negotiating peace: advice from the room where it (almost) happened

Few of these who opine on Israel-Palestine has ever tried to negotiate peace, let alone been in the room for decades of negotiations between the leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian people.

Yair Hirschfeld is a rare exception. He has devoted his whole life to the process of diplomacy, an experience he has recorded in his recently-published memoir The Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process: A Personal Insider's Account.

At a time when the hopefulness of Oslo seems a pipe dream, Hirschfeld continues to believe in a two-state solution. Speaking to The Jewish Independent, he was blunt in his dismissal of a confederation or one-state for Palestinians and Israelis.

"A land for all is madness. We hate each other. The assumption that we will love each other is not from this world." Instead, he advocates for "a process with mutual solutions that leads to separation and a structure that leads to two national realities."

Hirschfeld's account examines the conflict through the lens of his extensive experience as a key figure in 30 years of negotiations, including secret Oslo negotiations. He critically examines past strategies, with the hope that they will inform a future peace process.

What went wrong?

He argues that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's approach, to fight terror as if there was no peace process and to fight for peace as if there was no terror, was critically flawed.

"Rabin's formula did not put the necessary pressure on Arafat to take the necessary steps against Palestinian terror." Rather, he said, a more effective approach would have been to “stop the political negotiations every time there was a terror attack” shifting the conversation each time to focus only on security issues.

Oslo was largely negotiated by secular Israeli and Palestinian men. I asked him whether he felt the lack of women and religious figures was a factor in the failure.

Excluding religious leaders was a big mistake, he said. "Part of the problem was that Yossi Sarid and Ron Pundak in their statements turned the Oslo Process into an anti-religious crusade, which was asking for trouble,” he said, referring to two senior Israeli Oslo negotiators.

He also thinks women around the table would help. "When it comes to specific issues: education, release of prisoners, reconciliation, all people-to-people activities, that work to build majority support for the implementation of any agreement, the role of women appears to be essential."

But he is firm on the achievements of Oslo, particularly security co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, which he says has prevented hundreds of terror attacks. “The right-wing narrative is full of lies when they say Oslo cost lives,” he said.

Addressing the current war, Hirschfeld says he feels terrible about the devastation of Gaza, but views the accusations against Israeli leaders as war criminals by the ICC as preposterous.

He proposes the following approach to dealing with Hamas: "Fight them militarily, delegitimize them, put sanctions on them, take money away and put their leaders on trial. At the same time, one must also take care of the civilians and their humanitarian needs.” He criticizes the decision to cut aid to UNRWA, stating, "It only strengthens Hamas."

A new peace process?

Hirschfeld has not given up on negotiated peace. He believes Israel and the Palestinian Authority could take gradual steps that will ultimately lead to a resolution.

His five key principles to any peace process are: gradualism; Palestinian empowerment; effective security; embedment in regional cooperation, and reconciliation.

He emphasizes that Israel will need to accept a process of Palestinian empowerment, and the Palestinians will have to accept an international-cum-regional governance structure, that meets both Israeli and Palestinian security needs.

When asked if he had any words of advice for future negotiators, he warns against an “all or nothing, take it or leave it” approach, which he said ultimately prevented a resolution last time.

Major issues needed to wait until trust is built through gradual small steps, he said.This was the approach taken in the 1998 Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, which established power-sharing institutions but left the most contentious issue, whether the country should remain part of the UK to a referendum of the people at a future date.

Northern Ireland also provides hope that individuals involved in the process can change, he said, citing the case of Unionist leader Ian Paisley, once known as 'Dr No’. “After he had a heart attack in 2004 that almost ended his life, he moved from being a spoiler to a supporter of peace,” said Hirschfeld. In 2007, Paisley became the First Minister of Northern Ireland in a power-sharing government with his arch-enemy Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister.

Hirschfeld remains cautiously optimistic about the future, especially the role of the US. He quotes former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who once said, "It is my conviction that men and nations behave wisely only once they have exhausted all other alternatives. Surely the other alternatives of war and belligerency have now been exhausted.”