I spent last Friday night from 10pm with my friend and colleague Ilan Vered on our monthly Border Police patrol. Ilan's been involved for around 20 years, I've been doing my bit, (a very small bit), for nearly two years now.

We meet at a gas station in the rural area of Givat Ada, get instructions from the normally easy-going Yehuda as to where to patrol and if there is anything special to look out for, and normally arrange a time at which we'll break for coffee and meet back at the station, halfway through the patrol.

On Friday when Yehuda joined us he was not his usual relaxed self. He was very matter-of fact and business-like, insisted that we patrol with weapons and told us that reports had been received that suggested the likelihood of an attack from within the Arab community was considerably heightened as a result of the impending peace negotiations set to take place in Washington. Our area is peppered with Arab villages, some very friendly, others less so. He told us to be vigilant and to take no chances.

By 1pm, parked up at a junction on the road from the Arab village of Kfar Kara to the kibbutzes and small villages of the area, little had happened. I saw a hare run out across the road – he ran fast – and no surprise, as not far behind was a fox on the scent. I left the patrol car and wandered over in the darkness to a field and gazed out into the black, still night, contemplating life, the universe etc, etc. 

A noise about 100 yards away jolted me back to earth with a bang. It wasn't a fox or a hare, it was the sound of someone stepping on tinder-dry strands of hay that were strewn across the field in amongst the bushes and trees. Night vision can play tricks on the eyes, but I am sure I saw a person wearing a light coloured 'hoodie' (a strange garment when the evening temperature was still 28 degrees), moving around in the darkness. 

I hurried back to the car, (keeping my head down), told Ilan, he loaded the rifle, and we approached the field tentatively. The steps I had heard were occasional, but definitely getting closer.

'There's someone out there' I whispered, 'Did you hear that noise?'
'Yes', said Ilan. 'Keep quiet.'
I didn't need telling to keep quiet as the steps approached. Then suddenly, he was right on top of us.
'Mmmmoooooooooo!!!!' he said.
'He looks very much like a cow to me' observed Ilan. He was right of course, (he knows a cow when he sees one, even if he is a chicken farmer), but I still swear I saw someone out there.

Earlier this week, four people travelling by car on Route 60 from the Hebron area of the West Bank (where 500 Jews live in an armed compound amongst 100,000 Palestinians), were attacked by an unknown number of Hamas gunman. They all died instantly, including a pregnant woman. The information Yehuda had received about a potential terrorist attack or the kidnapping of a soldier or policeman, proved spot on. Sadly, even the best intelligence in the world cannot protect the public from every terrorist that wishes to commit murder, and those opposed to the attempts to find a negotiated peace now have more reason than ever to take extra risks in planning audacious raids that could derail the whole process.

The background to the latest attempt to get peace negotiations back on track has been fairly muddled, and whilst I truly hope something good will come out of this week's meetings between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, I believe the chances of achieving anything significant are very slight. 

Prime Minister Nethanyahu has already promised those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that they can start building again on September 26. He's tried to soften the pill by suggesting the building permits will be limited, but nonetheless this is like a red rag to a bull for the Palestinians. For his part, Mahmoud Abbas has a significant number of difficulties to deal with on his side – it should be noted that yesterday's Hamas attackers emerged from his Fatah 'controlled' West Bank – and Abbas' ability to truly carry his people with him has to be questioned. As to whether or not he himself is genuine in his purported desire for peace is another matter. He did, after all, make a statement back in 2003 insisting that only 890,000 Jews died in the Holocaust and the figure of six million was Jewish propaganda!

In a previous blog a few weeks ago, I pointed out the benefits to both Israel and the Palestinain Authority in the West Bank, of forging a peace deal that excludes Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Marginalizing such a despicable regime could prove a very fruitful policy. Discussing the situation with friends over dinner last week, a number told me that I am naïve and misguided if I think that Fatah, the party that rules the West Bank, is a willing partner for Israel in genuine peace talks.

One guy amongst the diners, (who is closely related to an individual working for Shabak, the Israeli internal security organization), insisted that every day the Shabak operatives are having to foil numerous attacks and terrorist plots that emanate from the West Bank, almost certainly with the tacit approval of those in charge. He may well be right. He's certainly in a better position than me to know such things, but it isn't (in my opinion), a sufficiently good argument for giving up on a peace process because a minority still want to continue armed resistance to the detriment of the majority.

More than 60 years of mutual hatred isn’t going to evaporate overnight. These things take time, take commitment, and take the willingness of genuinely charismatic and determined policy makers to make the changes. Whether or not Mssrs. Netanyahu and Abbas have enough backbone to make a deal remains to be seen, but with Syria and Lebanon getting into bed with each other in an ever more alarming fashion, Iran claiming to have the capacity to strike Israel at will (although that needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt), and Hamas only this week being caught out by the Egyptians as they attempted to smuggle in more than 200 ground-to-air missiles, the situation is looking decidedly delicate.

I seem to recall that almost up until the moment that Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley put pen to paper to sign the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, the overwhelming threat of terrorism continued to loom large over proceedings. Northern Ireland and the Israeli/Palestinian question are obviously very different situations, but if the Good Friday agreement proves anything, it is that the combination of strong personalities and pragmatic leadership on both sides of the argument coming together for the common good can make an almost unimaginable amount of difference.
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