Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    by Zhang Yanyang, Xu Gang

    JERUSALEM, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) are both using the media to gain access to each other's population in what analysts believe is positioning for negotiations.

    Israeli Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic to bypass Arab media and offer Israeli version of current events directly to Arab viewers across the Middle East.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday ran a full-page advertisement in three Israeli newspapers based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, assuring Israelis that withdrawal from Judea and Samaria in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem that would bring them full recognition by the Arab world.

    "All of this is taking place because Annapolis is dead and something has to come out of it so the Arabs and Israelis are positioning themselves in different ways for the next round," professor Gerald Steinberg, Political Studies Department Chair at Bar Ilan University, told Xinhua in a phone interview.

    Under the U.S. pressure, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed at a U.S.-hosted international conference in Maryland's Annapolis in November 2007 to relaunch the stalled peace talks and to hammer out a comprehensive peace treaty before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

    However, since Annapolis, the peace talks have made little substantial progress due to deep rifts on sensitive issues. With time running out, it became confirmed that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would not be reached this year.

    "The question is what comes next. It is going to be an entirely different U.S. administration and both sides are preparing for that in order to get the strongest possible position, what is called soft power," Steinberg said.

    Abbas aide Saeb Erekat noted that it was the first time a Palestinian leader reached out to Israelis via the media.

    Ghassan Khatib, vice president of Birzeit University near Ramallah, said it was a positive development that the PNA was giving extra attention to reaching the Israeli audience.

    "I think it is a good step and a good indicator of their willingness," Khatib told Xinhua.

    The ad, which was framed by a varicolored arrangement of flags from the Muslim world, stated that 57 Arab and Muslim countries would establish diplomatic ties with Israel in exchange for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation.

    The ad is also to run in newspapers in Europe and the United States.

    Khatib noted that part of the reason Abbas was running the ad was that the Palestinians were under the impression that the Israeli government had not done enough to publicize the Arab Peace Initiative.

    "The PNA believes that the Arab Peace Initiative can be very convincing to the Israeli public. They believe it can be very powerful. That is why they are publishing it," he said.

    He noted, however, that the timing of the ad was probably also related to the post-Annapolis political situation and in light of the change in the U.S. administration and Israeli parliamentary elections scheduled in February.

    "We hope that the new U.S. administration will be more active in trying to pursue peace. Pointing to that initiative might be motivated by these political events," Khatib said, adding that the Israeli initiative to use YouTube to reach an Arab audience was not new.

    "Israel using YouTube is a new development in the world of media but Israel has always been active in trying to reach the Arab audience," Khatib said, adding that Arab governments were less active and motivated to do the same.

    The reason why Israeli Foreign Ministry is using the Internet is because it allows them to reach the young generation across the Arab world, which is more hi-tech, more affluent and educated, more internationally aware and open to different views, Steinberg said.

    "Israel is taking public diplomacy seriously for the first time. The government is actually looking at long-term efforts to reach out, of which YouTube is one of many," he said.

    He added that Israeli Foreign Ministry was trying different approaches at branding Israel away from the focus on violence and the Palestinian conflict that is directed to a broader audience.

    Khatib noted that young people of Palestinian descent around the world also actively used the Internet to express their views.

    "At the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) there was the electronic Intifada, an initiative by a young American of Palestinian origin at making the Palestinian perspective clear amongst young people using the Internet," Khatibsaid.

    Both analysts noted that Israel's government initiative was unique and unparalleled by its Arab counterparts.

    "No Arab newspaper in Saudi Arabia or Syria or anywhere in the Middle East is going to publish a large ad on the Israeli peace plan or Israeli approaches to peace, which shows how far we are from having peace or reaching mutual acceptance," Steinberg said.