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It’s been 10 long
years since the Palestinians and Israelis last came close to
establishing a permanent peace, in January 2001 at Taba in Egypt.
During my career in the Egyptian Air Force, I saw the tragic toll of
war between the Arabs and Israel. As president of Egypt, I have endured
many ups and downs in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Egypt’s decision to
be the first Arab state to make peace with Israel claimed the life of
my predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat. Ever since the day in 1981 that I
witnessed his assassination by extremists, I have tried to turn the
dream of a permanent peace in the Middle East into a reality.

Now, after a nearly two-year hiatus in direct negotiations, we are opening yet another chapter in this long history.

Many claim that
this new round of talks – which begins with meetings between President
Obama; Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel; the Palestinian president,
Mahmoud Abbas; King Abdullah of Jordan; and myself here on Wednesday –
is doomed to fail like all the others.

However, Obama’s
determined involvement has revived our hopes for peace and we must
seize this opportunity. The broad parameters of a permanent
Palestinian-Israeli settlement are already clear: the creation of a
Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with
Jerusalem as a capital for both Israel and Palestine. Previous
negotiations have already resolved many of the details on the final
status of refugees, borders, Jerusalem and security.

The biggest
obstacle that now stands in the way of success is psychological: the
cumulative effect of years of violence and the expansion of Israeli
settlements have led to a collapse of trust on both sides. For the
talks to succeed, we must rebuild trust and a sense of security.

How do we do this?
First, we must safeguard the peace process from further outbreaks of
violence. To that end Egypt stands ready to resume its efforts to
resolve the many difficult issues surrounding Gaza: mediating a
prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza,
bringing an end to Israel’s blockade and fostering a reconciliation
between Hamas and its rival Fatah, which controls the West Bank.

All this is
critical to achieving a two-state solution. The Palestinians cannot
make peace with a house divided. If Gaza is excluded from the framework
of peace, it will remain a source of conflict, undermining any final
settlement.

For an
Israeli-Palestinian peace to succeed, it must also be embedded in a
broader regional peace between Israel and the Arab world. The Arab
Peace Initiative, endorsed by all Arab states, offers Israel peace and
normalisation in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from Arab territory
and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. But in the
interim both sides must show that this dream is within reach. Arab
nations should continue to demonstrate the seriousness of their peace
initiative with steps that address the hopes and concerns of ordinary
Israelis.

For its part,
Israel should make no mistake: Settlements and peace are incompatible,
as they deepen the occupation that Palestinians seek to end. A complete
halt to Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem is critical if the negotiations are to succeed, starting with
an extension of Israel’s moratorium on settlement building, which
expires this month.

For both sides trust can be built only on tangible security.

Security, however,
cannot be a justification for Israel’s continued occupation of
Palestinian land, as it undermines the cardinal principle of land for
peace.

I recognise that
Israel has legitimate security needs, needs that can be reconciled with
the Palestinians’ just demand for a complete withdrawal from occupied
territory. Egypt believes that the presence of an international force
in the West Bank, to be stationed for a period to be agreed upon by the
parties, could give both sides the confidence and security they seek.

Finally, Egypt
stands ready to host the subsequent rounds of negotiations. Every major
Palestinian-Israeli agreement has been reached with active Egyptian
involvement, in close collaboration with the United States. The 2001
talks in Taba, on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, were the closest
that the two sides have ever come to an agreement to end the conflict.
Let us pick up where we left off, and hope that the spirit of
engagement that accompanied those last talks engenders success.

We live in a world
that is suffering from the bitter lash of extremism. A permanent peace
between Israel and the Palestinians would bring the light of hope to
the Middle East and to people everywhere. As someone who has witnessed
both the ravages of war and the hope for peace, I appeal to all sides
to make this new round of negotiations the one that succeeds.

(Hosni Mubarak is the president of Egypt) © 2010 The New York Times