I rarely laugh out loud when reading a newspaper story. When I do, it is usually because of facts or events that are, simply, comical. Over Eid, however, I was prompted to laugh, not out of simple amusement, but with a rather cynical tone. My upper lip curled in something that I suspect resembled a sardonic sneer.
The reason? The telephone call of Eid greetings from Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, in which, according to Mr Netanyahu’s office, he had said that “the citizens of Israel want peace” and the country would “continue to act toward regional stability”.
The Palestinian news agency, reporting the call, said that Mr Abbas had responded by saying that it was important to establish a lasting peace deal within the next year. Mr Abbas was probably rather surprised by the call – after all, it was the first time in more than a year that he had spoken to Mr Netanyahu.
I have absolutely no doubt that there are citizens of Israel, including those of the Jewish faith as well as Arab Muslims and Christians, who want peace. Indeed, though they are significantly fewer than they once were, there are still courageous Israeli Jews who argue for a realistic, reasonable and just settlement of the conflict that has lasted the whole of my lifetime.
One could forgive Mr Abbas, and others, however, for doubting the sincerity of Mr Netanyahu’s remarks. His record during his four terms as prime minister, beginning in 1996, has been one of consistently adopting policies designed to undermine the possibility of a just peace settlement. In his first term, he regularly reneged on commitments made by his predecessor under the Oslo Accords.
His policy of ever-increasing (and illegal) settlement in the West Bank has been widely condemned as “creating facts” in such a way as to preclude any possibility of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
In 1993, before he first became prime minister, there were an estimated 111,000 settlers on the West Bank. There are now more than 400,000, according to Israel's Minister of Construction and Housing, who predicts a rise to 600,000 by 2019. A further 300,000 to 350,000 live in and around East Jerusalem.
Mr Netanyahu has, moreover, been prime minister during two of the recent Israel-Gaza conflicts, in 2012 and last year. Whatever one may think of the strategy and tactics of Hamas in Gaza – and they can be rightly criticised – Mr Netanyahu’s determination to use overwhelming force and, during ceasefires, to refuse to make any significant concessions that might ease the lot of Gaza's civilian population suggests that any “peace” he might be pursuing is the peace of the grave, with an utterly prostrate opponent, rather than one based on a negotiated settlement.
A cynical view of Mr Netanyahu's Eid greeting is reinforced by his overt appeal to racialism during the last Israeli elections as well as by the way in which he has sought, through active and open intervention in the politics of the United States, to overturn the policy of his closest friend and ally with regards to the recently-concluded agreement with Iran.
He has made overt threats to attack Iran, though the wiser counsel of his own military chiefs have thus far prevailed. How, one wonders, does this fit with Mr Netanyahu’s claim that Israel would “continue to act towards regional stability”?
His record is not that of a man who desires peace or who wishes to promote regional stability. Rather, it is the opposite.
The whole of the Middle East is in flames, but that doesn’t mean that Mr Abbas, or anyone else, should believe the words of a man whose political history is one of pouring more fuel on any fire he can find.
If there were sounds of sardonic laughter to be heard in Mr Abbas’s office after the call, I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised. The adage that “actions speak louder than words” comes to mind.
Peter Hellyer is a consultant specialising in the UAE’s history and culture