ISRAEL: Elders at the gates

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

In July 2007, Nelson Mandela and billionaire Richard Branson founded the Elders, a council of iconic global leaders whose roster includes Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan.

The group’s goals are seriously lofty: nothing less than the peaceful resolution of some of the planet’s most intractable conflicts.

So it seemed inevitable that the Elders would one day try to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has defined ‘intractable’ for most of the last century.

In mid-April, an Elders fact-finding mission, including Annan, Carter and former Irish President Mary Robinson will travel to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories ‘to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the interlocking Middle Eastern conflicts.’

They might not get the warmest reception in Israel. Tutu is already regarded dimly here for his long-standing criticism of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. Carter joined that list recently with the publication of his book ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.’

One Israeli blogger has already dubbed the venture ‘The Elders of Moron.’ The Foreign Ministry, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharonot, responded that the time wasn’t right ‘to bring more players into the political process, which is already in a complex situation.’

The paper quoted Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Gillerman, as having a much more blunt response.

‘This is an initiative out of which no good can come,’ Gillerman said. ‘Most
of the members of the group, particularly Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, are
people with a bias who have proved to be hostile to Israel.’

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem