The new Israeli "peace initiative" drafted by Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is no more than a placebo
for internal Israeli consumption and consumption by the US and Europe in
response to their pressuring Israel for positive movement toward ending the
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Doctors often prescribe placebos to patients that they feel are suffering from
ailments that are not necessarily physiological, hoping that the patient will
think that the medicine contains some active ingredient that will cure their
ailments. Such medication may have been believed successful during the
Oslo Peace Accords, but the latest 12-month round of bloodletting has done
additional physical damage to Palestinian rights, and thus, any treatment
must be real and immediate.
The few details of the new "initiative" that have been made public are so
bizarre that it is a wonder that it is being presented at all. Sharon makes no
mention of dismantling the illegal settlements, large or small, and the plan
will leave in place 3 Palestinian West Bank cantons or bantustans (aside
from the Gaza Strip) surrounded by Israeli troops, with full Israeli control of
the roads and highways.
In fact there is nothing new about the initiative (if it can even be called
that)
and is essentially the revival, with some slight changes, of the "Gaza First"
concept, yet no mention is made of dismantling the illegal settlements in and
around the Gaza Strip. The issue of Jerusalem is left for later stages, and
any discussion of the right of return of Palestinian refugees is rejected. It is
a
step backward to the pre Madrid/Oslo period, and both Peres and Sharon are
acting as if nothing has happened in the past 10 years.
The principles of a possible agreement between Israelis and Palestinians
have already been sketched out in numerous UN resolutions (242 and 338,
among others) and maintain full support of the world at large, including the
US and UK. Such an internationally legitimate approach should remain the
basis, with some mutually agreed to minor changes, for any initiative in the
area, or rather any initiative with a chance for success. The Israeli retreat to
the 1967 borders, the dismantling of illegal settlements, honest and creative
discussion of the right of return, and the relinquishing control over East
Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority or the defacto State of Palestine.
What is needed is a shot of adrenaline, and not a warmed over initiative with
no substance and no chance of success. Placebos, Mr. Sharon and Mr.
Peres, only work when the patient is only imagining they have been under
military occupation for 34 years. In this case, you would have to be deaf,
dumb and blind to not recognize this, so called initiative, for what is: a
blatant attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.
November 8, 2001
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American living in the besieged Palestinian City
of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
Michael Dahan is an Israeli-American political scientist living in Jerusalem
and can be reached at mdahan@attglobal.net.
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