Unfruitful peace talks

The attempts of a new neutral player, Britain, to revive the peace process in the Middle East and try to bridge differences between the Palestinian state and the Israeli government have been fruitless.

The two-day talks in London failed to achieve a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations due to the intransigence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has even hinted that he might turn down U.S. President Bill Clinton's invitation to resume negotiations next week.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who met separately with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu in London, has made it clear that talks in Washington must be on the basis of "American ideas". She was obviously referring to Washington's insistence that Israel concede another 13 percent of the West Bank area to the Palestinian rule, which Netanyahu rejected on the pretext of security for the Israelis.

Judging from Netanyahu's consistent violations of the terms of a peace accord signed by his predecessors and Arafat -- such as the establishment of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and the reluctance of troop withdrawals from Palestinian territory -- one could hardly hope that a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem could be reached in the foreseeable future.

Netanyahu, who has been called a "pyromaniac on the powder keg", has far too often turned a deaf ear to calls by world leaders to recognize Palestine as a state and deal with the Palestinians as independent partners and not as archenemies.

Netanyahu's immediate predecessor, Shimon Peres, has even expressed his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, with which the Jewish state should cooperate peacefully.

"I feel that without a Palestinian state, we (Israel) can't remain a Jewish state," Peres said Sunday at a Young Leaders Network meeting in Cyprus.

Many Israelis, particularly the younger generations who support change and peaceful coexistence, agree with Peres regarding the Palestinian state.

The pragmatic Israelis even believe that a developed Palestinian state will help ease tension and animosity between the two peoples, while failure of the ongoing peace process will openly lead to more violence, thereby threatening the safety and the security of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Yesterday's stabbing of a Jewish seminary student in Jerusalem's Old City was an example of how violence could easily erupt in the absence of peace in the region.

Given all this, we believe that a long sought, comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem can only be achieved when the world community and the peace-loving Israelis put more pressure on the Netanyahu government to abide by the terms of the Oslo accord and the peace agreement which both Israel and Palestine have signed.

Inside and outside pressures must be stepped up to force Netanyahu to make more concessions.

The international community could impose sanctions on the Netanyahu administration, while those in favor of peace, through the Labor opposition party, must exert greater political pressure on Netanyahu, who is ruling the country with a slim parliamentary majority.