In Paris, in Cairo, and in Doha, negotiations have taken place for nine months and led to nothing.
The latest negotiations are taking place in Cairo and Doha, with a direct American presence.
Initial indicators suggest that these negotiations will be a long process, between the initial discussions, reaching understandings on the principles, and then inventory of the points of agreement and points of difference to bridge the gap.
What is happening in Cairo and Doha in the presence of Washington are negotiations on paper. These negotiations focus on formulas that are sometimes called principles and other times possibilities. However, when these paper negotiations reach the point of implementation, the real role of Netanyahu and his military becomes evident. They negotiate on the ground with fire, using propaganda terms such as salvation from the first and second stages and entry into the third phase. Their war on Gaza has been and continues to be a single stage dominated by killing, invasion, targeted and random bombardment, and relentless displacement from everywhere to anywhere.
When the tone of optimism began to prevail slightly after Biden’s call to Netanyahu, one positive aspect was Netanyahu sending his delegations and Burns to the talks. But what actually happened?
Israel bombards Gaza City in one of the fiercest weeks of warA long list of actual obstacles produced by Netanyahu and his military emerged, including obtaining the huge bombs that were previously denied to him. This serves as a field encouragement that Netanyahu knows how to exploit. There is also a race between Democrats and Republicans to curry favour with him during his visits to Washington, ensuring that both the doors of Congress and the White House are open to him this time. Meanwhile, as paper negotiations are being prepared in Doha, the largest mass displacement of the people of Gaza took place. Netanyahu announced his red lines, which he implements on the ground, imposing them on the negotiations in Doha and Cairo.
It is a recurring scene, sometimes veiled in optimism and artificial positivity. It is also a repeated story of ineffective paper negotiations juxtaposed with the fire and destruction negotiations that Netanyahu sees as the shortest path to achieving his illusory dream of absolute victory. Paper negotiations are merely the other face of field negotiations. No matter how much goodwill is shown or how long efforts are made to separate them, Netanyahu makes it clear that any agreement or understanding reached will be just a temporary break, after which the war resumes, and so on.
Yousef Ramadan is the Ambassador of Palestine to Bangladesh
