"It is unlikely that we shall ever see a better foundation for
peace. The people support it. Political leaders are the obstacles to
peace." With these words, former President Carter welcomed the
symbolic signing of the model peace plan, known as Geneva Accord. It
had been worked out between private Israeli and Palestinian citizens
led by Yossi Beilin, Israel's chief negotiator of the Oslo Agreement,
and former Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.
The Accord proposes a Palestinian state comprised of 98 percent of the
West Bank, all of the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. It calls for the
removal of most Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Israelis would
share sovereignty over Jerusalem with the Palestinians, as they did
for centuries before they occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. The Palestinian
refugees from what is now the territory of the state of Israel would
forego their "right to return."
When Chairman Arafat expressed support for the Accord, two Palestinian
cabinet ministers and two legislators flew to the signing ceremony.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the European Union, as well as 58
former heads of state and prime ministers issued statements in support
of the initiative.
Since the Accord fits in well with the U.S.-backed "road map"
for peace, Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a letter of encouragement
to the Israeli and Palestinian backers of the 50-page blueprint. He
also met with Beilin and Rabbo in Washington.
Mr. Powell's favorable response prompted irate protests from the hardliners
in both Israel and the U.S. Sharon himself insists that no negotiations
are possible unless the bloodshed stops. Yet, it was he who reacted
to the Accord with stepped-up military operations that killed two Palestinians
on the West Bank.
Ehud Olmert, Israel's vice premier, openly criticized Secretary Powell's
intent to meet with the plan's authors: "I think he is not helping
the process," warned Olmert, "I think this is a wrong step
by a representative of the American administration." Apparently,
the Sharon government wants only America's billions of dollars in aid,
but not American guidance toward ending the agony.
In Gaza City, demonstrators denounced Rabbo and rejected the proposed
Palestinian renunciation of the "right to return." In Israel,
250 rabbis vilified the Israeli signers as traitors who should be "cast
out from human society and brought to trial."
Wall Street Journal columnist Charles Krauthammer echoed the intransigent
rabbis: "This 'peace' is entirely hallucinatory," he hissed.
"It is Lucy and the football all over again, and the same chorus
of delusionals who so applauded Oslo--Jimmy Carter, Sandy Berger, Tom
Friedman--is applauding again."
Krauthammer bristlingly concludes: "This is not a treaty, this
is a suicide note … . That it should get any encouragement from
the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace."
Also in the Wall Street Journal, Claudia Rosett of the Hudson Institute
asks, "Is Bush Selling Out?" She is incensed that "Israel
is told it must forego even the building of a protective fence, and
instead leave the roads open to Yasser Arafat's cult of bombs and blood.
An 'alternative' peace accord," she complains, "gets not only
a hallelujah from such dictator groupies as Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, but one from the State Department."
The annoyance with which Sharon's allies are reacting to the Geneva
Accord reflects their fear of the growing grassroots demands for peace
now and for a settlement in which not only Palestinians but also Israelis
are willing to make concessions. Yet, none of the critics are able or
willing to offer constructive counterproposals.
Colin Powell is on the right track. Now it is up to our Senators and
Representatives to sound their support for him and place the national
interest--peace in the Middle East--over their counterproductive allegiance
to Sharon's army of lobbyists.