THE GENEVA ACCORDS SERIES (No. VIII of VIII)
This commentary is one of a series of articles of views on “The Geneva
Accords” by Israeli and Arab authors commissioned by the Common Ground News
Service in partnership with Al-Hayat newspaper and reprinted by other
regional news and media outlets.
Hope and Glory - Geneva
Avraham Burg
Many attempts to achieve peace in our region have collapsed. Peace with the
Egyptians has never been complete, but it is bearing some fruit - there is
no war and there is no bloodshed on the shared border. With Jordan, too, the
international line holds fast and ceasefire agreements along the border with
Syria have existed for more than a quarter of century.
Only with the Palestinians, our nearest neighbours geographically and
politically, we have not been successful. The reasons for this are many and
varied and although those responsible for this failure are well known, those
responsible for the failure on both sides have escaped public disapprobation for
a very long time. In this article, I want to present, briefly, the main reason
for the collapse of the previous peace initiative - Oslo, and the conclusions
that are required for the rescue and success of the next attempt - Geneva. A
reminder, after 20 years (1967-1987), of association between the vanquished and
the conqueror, between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Palestinians have
informed us that they have seen the light in the “enlightened” occupation and
that they are no longer interested in continuing the connection. They gave this
announcement a name, which was, until then, unknown in the vocabulary of the
Middle East as Intifada. The first Intifada surprised Israel and the whole
world. Actually its existence exposed the intensity of the violence and despair
which it set in motion. From this same Intifada, the Oslo Accords were born. In
secret, in intimacy, far from view, its proponents conjured up the Declaration
of Principles that surprised the world and us, and Oslo became an actual
political fact. Immediately, without paying attention to details and
repercussions, the two societies, the Israelis and the Palestinians, adopted the
option of hope. Eighty percent of Israelis and the same number of Palestinians
said “yes” to the agreement at that time - a valued “yes” that paved the way and
marked the direction towards an agreed and dignified separation between the two
linked peoples. But as is always the case here, no one prepares for the day
after. We invest blood, souls, victims and money, in order to argue over
yesterday, and we’re not prepared to give the slightest attention to what the
next day will bring. We are tied by the bonds of death to all the previous
generations and are not prepared to create bonds of life for the sake of all
those who come after us. In this way, we neglected to deal with the tomorrow of
Oslo. We rejoiced over the surprising present, but failed to create agreements
for a promising future. Both of us, Israel and Palestine, neglected what was
most sensitive and painful to the other side. Israel did not understand how much
the settlements were like a barbed wire, wounding and lethal to the flesh and
spirit of the Palestinian revival. Every Palestinian who agreed to the peace of
Oslo said to himself or herself: “I accept that peace is a compromise.” A
compromise is incomplete and imperfect, but an honourable compromise is better
than a passion that can never be fulfilled. We are making peace and expect that,
on the other side, the message will be received and the settlements - the most
prominent and painful symbol of the “enlightened” and discriminatory occupation
- will cease, will be removed from the landscape of the life of the Palestinian
future. Israel was not listening. From Oslo until the present day, the
settlements have multiplied in number, price and pain, under Rabin, Peres,
Netanyahu, Barak, and of course, under Sharon. On the other hand, the
Palestinians did not understand what incitement does to us. Every day, we cupped
an ear to the voices emanating from the mosques and schools and we trembled. If
that’s what the new Palestinian consciousness sounds like, it means they are not
creating a new generation beyond the checkpoints and conflict. They are not
investing in purifying and cleansing the soul of the hatred and psychology of
revenge. Another generation is going out to the streets, drenched with feeling
of hopeless revenge, anger and hostility. This was how life was then: the
political Oslo of the newspaper headlines, and the settlements versus the
incitement in the alleyways. The souls of the two peoples did not internalize
the chance they had been given. Collision was only a question of time and
collapse was written on the wall. And when the collision came, just like a
terrifying train accident, two people were not there to prevent it. Yitzhak
Rabin, who had been sacrificed on the altar of Oslo and Yasser Arafat, who gave
up at the decisive moment - preferring to continue the dispute with Israel in a
dialogue of blood and terror, abandoning the political negotiating table. Since
then, for three long, cursed years, a blight has hung over the Middle East.
“There’s no one to talk to and nothing to talk about”. And in the absence of a
partner and a partnership, swords have been drawn and death has received an
official license to go crazy on the streets. After three years of bloodshed and
countless tears of grief, the two parties have realized that the conflict cannot
be resolved by violence. Individuals can claim revenge, continue to be thirsty
for blood, but peoples and leaderships simply cannot be allowed to destroy their
peoples with cyclical policies of revenge, reaction and revenge. The leadership
of the peoples has betrayed them. They have not given us security and have not
brought us nearer to peace. Suddenly, the moment has arrived when the two
nations, the two civil societies upon which the political system is built, have
felt the “fatigue of despair.” They are fed up with being desperate when it is
obvious to them what the solution is and what it can bring in its wake. It is
fortunate that at this moment, Geneva was waiting for us. Two people, my friend,
colleague and partner, Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo did not give up - not
when Barak erred nor when Arafat erred. They said to themselves: if we, who are
so close to the vision of peace, are not capable of building a bridge, no one
will ever be able to do so. Slowly by hard work, with patience, the peace camp
re-emerged. After three years, we have succeeded in reaching an agreement. For
the first time, we have placed before the two communities the final image.
Throughout the years, and during all the agreements the final image was just hot
air with very little content: “painful prices,” “historic compromise,” and
“agonizing decisions.” These empty words allowed the leadership to evade their
historic responsibility and that of their people. The Geneva Accords are the
true picture. That is how the relationship between us and you will seem on the
day that the governments rise to the level of responsibility of the planners of
the Geneva Accords. The Geneva assumptions are simple and striking. I do not
want a victory for one side at a price of an insult and humiliation for my
former enemy and my partner for the future. I want an agreement with dignity for
everything that is holy and precious to the other. And I expect the very same
treatment from him. Geneva is an agreement of mutual respect, not of shared
affront. It is impossible to escape from the truth within Geneva. Each of the
parties has wonderful dreams, dreams of a great homeland, historic rights and
age-old religious dimensions. But a political agreement is not the place where
dreams come true. On the contrary, an agreement is the place where dreamers meet
and determine for themselves, by agreement, the limits within which their dream
becomes a possibility. As a Jew, I will never give up my dream regarding the
return of God to his sanctuary in the Third Temple. But, until he returns, I
don’t have to exercise my sovereignty in the place of God’s sanctuary. I prayed
to a place that was once Persian, Arabic, Roman, Mameluk, Crusader, Turkish,
British and Jordanian. It is not hard for me at all to relate and appeal to my
“God of all the nations” even when the sovereignty in the place of the sanctuary
will be Palestinian - my spiritual dream and the political sovereignty of
another, whose faith I respect and who respects my faith. For my part, I know
how piercing and painful is the prayer of the Palestinian heart to return to the
villages and towns from which they were exiled because of the tides of war and
history. The dream of return has always been the backbone that has carried the
Palestinians’ chances of resurrection. The chance has arrived, it is here and
you must not miss it. Geneva is an opportunity for resurrection and
independence. This is the time to separate the dream and build the
possibilities. I expect each of my Palestinian colleagues to know and
acknowledge that a prayer is one thing and implementation is another. No one can
take away an individual’s yearning to win the right of return. This is his right
which is in his heart. But the actual realization will not happen, just like my
Temple will remain in the kingdom of dreams until another history arrives.
Because Geneva says to both parties: Only someone who knows how to leave his
dreams in the realm of dreams will be able to create a better vision and a much
more wonderful future for his children. And anyone who insists on living out the
dream will end up living a perpetual endless nightmare. Even the proudest among
the mothers of the shaheedin (martyrs), is a mother of flesh and blood, and I
want to offer her the life of her children in this world, the smiles and joy of
grandchildren in the coming years instead of the suffering and funerals, black
garb and endless yearning for a child who committed suicide and murdered so many
innocent men, women and children on the altar of stupidity and revenge. Geneva
has replaced hope in the equation of despair of the Middle East. Suddenly,
therefore, everyone has woken up. There is forty percent support in Israel and
Palestine. Stubborn opposition of extremists in the two camps persists, because
they know that the hope of Geneva is the alternative to religious extremism,
which is killing us all in the name of everlasting life. Therefore, the
international community has woken-up and embraced us - since Geneva is the hope
of the region and of the whole world for political stability and for the future
of mutual peace-making and respect. The next stages are absolutely clear to me.
Geneva must become an integral part of the international formula - like 242 and
338. Geneva must be the political declaration that the mass of citizens on both
sides demand from their leadership. Not a fence of illusions, not the terrorism
of murders and heartless deviants, not one-sided separation and not empty words
from an old leadership that has no future here. Geneva is against all this
terrible despair. Geneva is for the great hope. We will again say yes to the
agreement and, this time, we will do all we can to be successful.
Avraham Burg was speaker of Israel's Knesset from 1999 to 2003 and is a
former chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. He is currently a Labour Party
Knesset member.
Geneva Accord Series
Unilateral detachment from Gaza:
In a Small Piece…
Gershon Baskin, Israeli Co-Director of the Israel/Palestine
Center for Research and Information, reflects on the potential repercussions
of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Baskin advocates
that “the main thing is to get the [authority transition] process moving in
the right direction by planning for it now in parallel with any Israeli
planning for disengagement and redeployment.” (Source: IPCRI, March 4, 2004)
Israel - Palestine:
It's Time to
Internationalize the Solution
Discussing past failed attempts by Israelis and
Palestinians to partition, A. Benn states that “in light of the failed
performances by the sides, which have prevented its [partition] execution,
it is worth considering the alternative of internationalization:
expropriating the authority to determine the borders and security
arrangements from the Israelis and Palestinians and giving the authority to
the superpowers, led by the U.S.” (Source: Ha’aretz, March 4, 2004)
Silent - no longer:
Call It Enlightened Self-Interest
OneVoice founder and President Daniel Lubetzky
discusses the OneVoice fast growing campaign whose mission is “to isolate
the forces of terrorism and violent absolutism […] by giving the
overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of Israelis and Palestinians the
opportunity to have their voices heard and seize back the agenda from the
minority that creates and sustains the current intractable situation.”
(Source: Jerusalem Post, February 17, 2004)
The Geneva Accord Series VII/VIII:
Penetrating the Stagnation
Even those who oppose the Geneva Accord in the Palestinian and Arab mass
media, for whom Arab satellite channels open their arms and screens, cannot
deny that the initiative has stirred the stagnant waters in the lake of a
frozen peace, since the extremists and hardliners from both the Palestinian
and Israeli sides took matters into their own hands. |