Even Palestine approves of our contacts with Israel

Even Palestine approves of our contacts with Israel

Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, New York

The meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan
Wirayuda and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on the
sidelines of the 2005 World Summit, may well be received
negatively by Muslim-based political parties, such as the
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and other Muslim organizations,
for the same old reasons.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself has a strong and
pragmatic rationale in taking the new initiative and it is
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself who has asked him to
play the interlocutor role.

The President initially planned to visit Palestine and tour
some other Middle East countries on his way home after attending
the summit in New York, and the two ministers' meeting was a part
of the mission to Palestine to get security assurances from
Israel during the visit to Ramallah. Unfortunately the plan was
postponed due to domestic problems.

The decision to open contact with Israel is the President's
first major diplomatic move, apart from hosting the 50th Asian-
African commemorative summit last April. This is the beginning of
an ambitious but attainable mission, although it could well
backfire if not executed cautiously.

Palestine is an emotional issue for many Indonesians and for
Muslims all over the world. For some Muslims, any kind of
relationship with Israel is unimaginable and is even regarded as
'haram' because of Israel's ruthlessness in suppressing their
Palestine brothers and sisters, the majority of them Muslims.
Only after Palestine achieves its full independence can Indonesia
establish relations with Israel. Many Indonesians do not realize
that several Arab countries also maintain trade and diplomatic
relations with Israel.

In the meantime, there are also Indonesian groups who may
question the urgency and benefit of the President's plan in
taking a mediator role in the Middle East because our domestic
affairs are clearly much more pressing. Palestinian problems have
persisted for several decades with no sign of solution. Even Arab
countries and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
cannot do much.

But how can Indonesia help Palestine without having any
contact with Israel? There is no way we can mediate between two
conflicting or warring parties when we do not have relations and,
more importantly, the trust of both sides.

In fact, Susilo is not the country's first president to have
initiated contacts with Israel. In 1993, then president Soeharto
received then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at his private
residence.

Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who had close contacts with
Israeli leaders in his capacity as leader of the country's
largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), also had
ambitious plans during his nearly-two year rule until July 2001.
He had wanted to establish official ties with Israel.

Western countries like the United States have strongly backed
Indonesia's plans -- as explicitly expressed by British PM Tony
Blair to President Susilo in New York -- because they realize
that growing terrorism in predominantly Muslim nations is partly
triggered by the Palestinian tragedy. Israel has strategic
interests in having good relations with Indonesia and one of its
ministers has told Minister Hassan that they were ready to accept
any role Indonesia wants to play in the Palestine issue.

But Indonesia must also be realistic because it can only play
a limited role because of the delicacy of the problems.
Indonesia's status as the world's third largest democracy after
India and the U.S., and as the world's largest predominantly
Muslim nation, and a moderate one at that, is a much-sought after
capacity now. Susilo himself is the first directly elected
president in the Muslim world.

But how, at the end of the day, can diplomacy improve the
welfare of the people? How can playing such a role boost our
exports? Indonesia played a very decisive role in ending the
Cambodian civil war in the early 1990s along with other members
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Singapore
and Malaysia were very outspoken in attacking the Vietnam-backed
regime of Hun Sen at that time. But what happened?

Later, as acknowledged by former foreign minister Ali Alatas,
Indonesia found that Singapore and Malaysia had been very
aggressive in their investments while at the same time attacking
Hun Sen in public. Indonesia only got the glory, but the money
went to the neighbors.

In the war against terrorism Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf seemed smarter than our leaders in obtaining economic
benefits from Western countries. A few weeks ago Musharraf also
sent his foreign minister to meet with the Israeli foreign
minister.

The writer can be reached at purba@thejakartapost.com