Lessons from inside the negotiation room

Political leaders just keep coming to St Andrews, the latest of which, HE Daniel Taub, Israel’s ambassador to the Court of St James. Ambassador Taub, hosted by the Foreign Affairs […]

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Political leaders just keep coming to St Andrews, the latest of which, HE Daniel Taub, Israel’s ambassador to the Court of St James.

Ambassador Taub, hosted by the Foreign Affairs Society on Thursday, has served as a member of the Israeli-Syrian negotiation teams, was Deputy Ministry Advisor of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as a legal advisor to Israel’s missions to the UN. Active in Israeli negotiations for the past 20 years, Taub has been busier than an Empire cashier on a Friday night.

Taub has helped to negotiate the majority of the Israeli-Palestinian agreements over the last two decades, but noted “I have had nothing to do with peace arrangements between Jordan and Egypt, which are the two countries we actually have peace with”.

He proved that he knew his stuff later in the speech, speaking about Israeli- Palestinian relations. “I know it sounds non-sensical,” he said, “but grown men are playing mind games with each other.” Taub gave numerous examples of absurd compromises made by each side, such as whether the slit on a post box should be on the top or side of the square. What kept him going, he said, was the thought of the wishes of “future grandchildren, as well as past grandparents.”

During his speech, Taub spoke quite passionately about his ideas on what peace actually is, saying, “peace is a big thing.” Laymen’s terms for us uni students. He went on however, and said that “peace is actually a series of miracles. Each negotiator is there to achieve a higher value. But peace is not a solution; it is exchanging one series of problems for another.”

 

Image courtesy of Wales Online