Border Control / How we lost Europe

[bemildred]

Some interesting historical insights from a guy that was there.

It was exactly 10 years ago. Israel's ambassador to Jordan, Oded Eran, was invited to present his writ of appointment to King Hussein on the afternoon of the Shavuot holiday in 1997. Someone forgot, however, that because of religious law associated with the holiday, the ambassador would not be able to travel in his armored car to the palace - and security personnel did not permit him to travel on foot. He remained at home.

That was the second time Eran was forced to announce to the Jordanians that he could not arrive at the palace. A few days before that, instead of presenting his writ of appointment to King Hussein, Eran presented a letter of resignation to then foreign minister David Levy.

Three days after arriving in Amman, Eran read in a newspaper that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met with the king in Aqaba in the middle of the night. The two leaders deliberated the division of water between the two nations, a subject as familiar to Eran as water to a fish, because of his former post as deputy director of the Foreign Ministry economics department.

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"Before we return to the negotiations table, we must learn lessons from the manner in which negotiations were conducted at that time. The Americans and the Palestinians also went to the Camp David Summit without previous understandings, with insufficient closure of gaps, and without preliminary coordination between the three sides or alternative positions. Had we acted in that manner, we might well have avoided the second intifada and its consequences. Barak's turn toward the Syrian route immediately after negotiations with the Palestinians opened in September, 1999, also failed to earn the trust of Palestinians and did not contribute to the success of talks with them."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/861896.html

[Englander]

1. V. perceptive gentleman, Mr Eran.

"In recent years, the Holocaust played a marginal role in relations with EU countries, including Germany. Europe's current perspective on Israel lacks emotion and is loaded with self-interest. That is not exceptional. American Middle East policy is also motivated by its own interests. I believe that solving the conflict will bring about a dramatic change in relations with Europe. Now, as well, central EU institutions thwart attempts by a variety of groups in Europe to harm the relationship with Israel to punish it for its policy."

[bemildred]

2. He sounded sane and rational.

Always a pleasant surprise; and he made some interesting comments and observations from his own experience.