| Palestinians and Israelis are left alone At the negotiations in the Egyptian resort of Taba, Israelis and Palestinians for the first time in a long time were left without the caring tutelage of the main Middle East peacemaker - Bill Clinton left the White House, having failed to advance a settlement plan. “The new US President Bush is unlikely to be personally involved in negotiations as often as Clinton,” Dennis Ross, the former American president’s special envoy to the region, complained recently. The new head of the American administration, whose indifference to international affairs and incompetence in this area became the talk of the town even during the election campaign, does show polite attention to the negotiations, but nothing more.
If the negotiations in Taba, now ongoing at the ministerial level (the Israeli delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, and the Palestinian delegation by International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath), are successful, they will be continued by Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat. Both sides need at least minimal progress. Otherwise, Barak cannot avoid losing the prime ministerial elections on February 6, and then right-wing politician Ariel Sharon will come to power in Israel. He will put forward even tougher proposals to the Arabs, and, understanding this, the Palestinians agreed to continue the dialogue with the left, especially since this was Clinton’s “last will”.
However, judging by reports from Taba, differences remain serious. Realizing this, other international mediators, the European Union or Russia, which have always criticized the United States for its desire to play first fiddle in negotiations, are in no hurry to fill the vacuum caused by the Americans’ temporary distance from the problems of the Middle East. Today's visit of Israeli President Moshe Katsav to Moscow at the invitation of President Putin is just a planned visit that is unlikely to affect Russia's activity in the region.
The president in Israel is a purely representative figure, and Moshe Katsav also represents right-wing religious circles, which do not consider Russia a promising mediator. The weight of the visit, however, is given by an impressive retinue of 30 businessmen, mainly from the same religious circles that maintain business contacts with Russia, including diamond businessman Lev Leviev and food magnate Michael Strauss, as well as representatives of telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. All of them have been working with Russians for a long time, and there will be no talk of new large joint projects in Moscow. Elena SUPONINA |
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