Tal Becker, international associate, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; former senior policy advisor, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, foreign policy roundtable, AIPAC Policy Conference, March 21, 2010:
“I think Israel has done some important measures over the last year, especially the settlement moratorium and other measures on the grounds. The PA has done important measures in security, but I think a lot more is needed. I have a kind of rule of thumb in the Middle East. If you wake up every morning thinking how peace is going to come today, you’re going to be pretty depressed. But while there are situations that can seem impossible to solve, there are pretty few situations that are impossible to improve. And if you wake up in the morning thinking, ‘How can we move closer to peace?’ then I think there is—there is room to move. I think if the talks begin and are substantive rather than an exercise in evasion, we can at least bring closer to real dialogue, and it’s certainly better than not talking. I think we have a real opportunity to ensure that the West Bank is not a failed state or a terrorist state, and no one can afford that. And I think we do have a chance of increasingly marginalizing Hamas. Now, on these three areas, Abu Mazen and Salam Fayad can and need to be partners. They’re probably not going to be AIPAC board members any time soon. They may not even know ‘Hatikvah’ all by heart. But there is a—there is a convergence of interests here, and we must expect them—even if we feel like peace is out of reach, we should expect them at least to work on those three areas on a day-by-day basis.”
