Inside The Ramallah Beltway

Richard Nixon made a fetish of secrecy because, he said, he couldn't negotiate in open with the Soviets and Chinese with the Vietnam war going on. You can see his point as Palestinian leaders deal with the leak of documents purported to describe their 2008 negotiating positions on the status of east Jerusalem and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. Though it's unclear whether the documents describe firm PNA positions, they definitely make the negotiators sound more generous than most Palestinians were inclined to be. The documents also make clear that the PNA was taking a hard line on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

If there's going to be peace, obviously both sides will have to sell and spin some unpopular concessions. As Nixon understood while making nice with communist China and Russia, premature revelations can make a regime look weak, feckless, or shrewd, depending on your perspective. To the extent that this leak makes the Palestinians look bad, some naturally blame the Israelis, but veteran U.S. Middle East hand Robert M. Danin disagrees:

The documents were apparently provided to Al Jazeera by disgruntled Palestinians who set out to harm the PLO leadership and their peaceful path toward realizing Palestinian national goals. The Qatar-based satellite network has played along, insinuating that the documents show that the Palestinian leadership has proved weak and willing to capitulate to Israeli desires. On the documents pertaining to Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, it laments that Palestinian negotiators "gave away almost everything to the Israelis, without pressuring them for concessions or compromise."

Call the Nixon plumbers, because Danin wants Al Jazeera held responsible for trying to derail the peace talks. Perhaps the only good news is that malcontents are resorting to press leaks instead of another intifada, though they may hope the former leads to the latter. Time for good moderates to man up again. It actually looks like they're getting somewhere, much to the distress of the enemies of peace.

Photos from last week's St. John's pilgrimage: Cafe conversation in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and men on the street in east Jerusalem