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Israelis or Palestinians? Where's the Missing Partner?

Akiva Eldar writes about perceptions that the Government of Israel may prefer delaing with Hamas rather than Fatah.
A Palestinian flag flutters as a Palestinian boy stands atop the rubble of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike during an eight-day conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip December 20, 2012. Eight days of Israeli air strikes on Gaza and cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks ended in an Egyptian-brokered truce agreement last month calling on Israel to ease restrictions on the territory. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: CONFLICT)
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At the end of last week [Dec. 20], IDF Chief of Staff Lipkin-Shahak passed away — the [Israeli Defense Force's first and last Chief of Staff who communicated with the Palestinians at eye level as equals, and not only through the sight of a rifle. Major General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who passed away at age 68, understood that stable relations with the Palestinians could not endure over time when resting on only one foothold: the security foothold. Lipkin-Shahak started out as an army man, then became a minister in Barak’s government and, finally, an activist in civilian peace organizations (including the Geneva Agreement and the IPI — Israel Peace Initiative).

Throughout, Lipkin-Shahak never stopped searching for the second, political foothold on which to support stable relations with the Palestinians. It is hard to assess how many Israeli lives were saved from Hamas terror attacks by virtue of the relations based on mutual trust, that Shahak cultivated with the security and political leadership in the territories. As part of his diverse activities, Shahak must have met several times with two high-level officers in the American army; Marine Corps reserve Major Steven White and Retired Colonel Philip Dermer — both of whom served for many years in the USSC (United States Security Coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority). A few days before Shahak’s death, the two American officers visited Israel and held a briefing. Shahak could have unhesitatingly signed his agreement to what was the bottom line of that discussion: that if there is any importance to the expression “there is no partner” — an expression coined by Ehud Barak, Chief of Staff before Shahak — then it is not necessarily the Palestinian side that fits the description.

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