We are Partners - How About You?

by Itamar Eichner

"We are partners - and what's with you"? asks the organizers of the Geneva Initiative of the People of Israel in a new (advertising) campaign that will open this morning, and it turns out that the Americans are also joining.

Today's Yediot Ahronot, p.7:

Big picture across the top of the page (l to r):

Sufian Abu Zeideh, Yasser Abu Rabo, Saeeb Erekat, Abu Mazen, Salam Fayyad, Riad Al-Malki, Jabril Rajoub

Caption OVER the picture: "We Are Partners. And You?"

Headline: Campaign Funded by the White House

Subhead: The Geneva Initiative Organization Produces, the Americans Are Paying, the Heads of the Palestinian Authority Star in a Political Campaign That Will be Open This Morning and Will Try to Convince Israelis That Peace is Possible

Saeeb Erekat, Jabril Rajoub, Yasser Abd Rabo and the Palestinian foreign minister (sic) Riad Malki will appear from this morning on billboards throughout Israel, in newspaper advertisements and in network spots - and will try to convince you that there is with whom to speak on the other side.

At first glance it appears just like any other initiative of a movement in favor of a 2-state solution, but when you check who gave the main funding for this campaign it turns out to be none other than Washington, D.C. One million shekel (~ $260,000: TW) has been invested in financing the campaign, whose goal is to encourage Israelis to support a Palestinian state, and most of which came from the American assistance agency, USAID - a federal agency that usually funds humanitarian activities in the world, e.g. assistance for victims of the earthquake in Haiti, food supplies for flood victims in Pakistan, and for the hungry and starving in Africa. The organization is active in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but never - until today - did it ever finance a project that is connected to political organizations and to the peace process in the Middle East. Moreover - this will be the first time that the American Government supports financially, even if indirectly, in an initiative of this kind.

The Geneva Initiative is an organization that promotes a permanent Israeli-Palestinian solution on the basis of the Clinton Parameters of December 2000. "Yediot Ahronot" became aware that it is the organization that turned to Washington with a request to receive financial support for producing the campaign, and it was agreed upon there to respond positively. "We are showing the partners as they are", said yesterday Geneva Initiative CEO Gadi Baltiansky. "I am happy that those who support a solution of two states are also assisting in passing on the message".

Sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said last night that the decision of the American Government to fund this campaign is in their eyes extremely odd. "This this is [sic] fact a campaign of the Palestinian Authority with funding from the US Government", said the source.

Itamar Eichner
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