What Do Peace Envoys Actually Do in the Middle East?
For many years, the world’s powers have been sending envoys to the Middle East to secure peace deals. Given their lack of success, however, Omar Shaban asks what their point is.
The small triangle — with its three points of Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Jerusalem — has been thronged with peace envoys from around the world. They all seek to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Evidently, these efforts were all to no avail, despite the many envoys that were sent to the region, including envoys of the European Union, the UN's secretary general, the US administration, the Quartet, in addition to Chinese and Russian envoys.
This is not to mention the hundreds of international agencies, which are supposed to be concerned with security, development, refugees, environment, population and prisoners. While some of the international institutions working in the field of development and relief have played a significant role — that cannot be overlooked — in favor of the Palestinian cause and have been much appreciated by Palestinians, some peace envoys have failed to do the same in a region that has lacked peace for decades. This is a region that is scarred by war and has been suffering from political and military struggles for decades, despite the many peace envoys thronging its territories.
With every passing moment, the chances of peace lessen in the region. These envoys cannot deny this truth, for they have been witnessing the slow death of the two-state solution, which has become closer to an illusion than reality. With their armored vehicles, which are worth thousands of dollars, they go past the checkpoints without waiting. In their cold reports they write about the heated settlement operations, while whispering about the ongoing blockade imposed on 1.5 million Palestinians since 2007. They may differ in names, appearance and in the level of their mission's expenditure, but they are all the same in terms of mediocre performance compared with their pompous titles and costs of their missions.
First: the Quartet’s envoy for the peace process
