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They all have peace plans: (Clockwise from top left) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President George W. Bush, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, former justice minister Yossi Beilin.
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| By Ellis Shuman November 28, 2003 |
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PM Ariel Sharon's son MK Omri Sharon traveled to London this week for talks with Palestinian officials aimed at advancing the "road map" peace initiative. Sharon hinted he would take "unilateral steps" if no agreement with the Palestinians was reached. Next week the unofficial "Geneva Accord" will be signed in a star-studded ceremony. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell angered Israel by announcing his willingness to meet with the "architects" of the Geneva Accord, and possibly with the initiators of the Peoples' Voice as well.
A plethora of peace plans and grassroots initiatives makes it hard to understand the Middle East peace process. Here's a guide.
Road map peace initiative
Last week the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the so-called "road map" to a permanent two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The peace plan was drafted by members of the Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union - and aims to end more than three years of Mideast violence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005.
The "road map" peace plan calls for a three-phased implementation of U.S. President George W. Bush's June 24, 2002 speech envisioning Israel and Palestinian "living side by side in peace and security." Israel and the Palestinians formally endorsed the "road map" plan at the June 2003 summit at Aqaba, Jordan, attended by Bush, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Jordanian King Abdullah and then-Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).
The official text of the "road map" peace plan initiative can be found here.
Israel, however, listed 14 comments on the "road map" peace initiative, which have not been adopted by the United States, nor were they mentioned in the UN Security Council endorsement of the plan.
In the first phase of the "road map" plan, terrorism and violence are supposed to end, Palestinian life would be normalized, the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories improved, and Palestinian institutions rebuilt. The onus, however, is on the Palestinians to "immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence... such action should be accompanied by supportive measures undertaken by Israel," according to the plan. In the first phase, Israel is required to dismantle unauthorized outposts and freeze settlement construction.
The second phase of the "road map" focuses on creating an independent Palestinian state with "provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty." This phase is intended to start after Palestinian elections and end with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The objectives of the third phase of the "road map" are the "consolidation of reform and stabilization of Palestinian institutions; sustained, effective Palestinian security performance, and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at a permanent status agreement in 2005."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says that Israel supports the "road map" peace initiative as the sole path for peace negotiations. In previous statements, Sharon has said he is willing to make "painful concessions" in the name of peace, but only when the Palestinians totally end terror and incitement.
This week Sharon said that if negotiations with the Palestinians failed, Israel would have to take "unilateral steps," although he did not define or elaborate what those steps would include. Sharon hinted that the steps would include "territorial concessions," and did not deny that Israel might evacuate isolated settlements unilaterally.
Sharon has come under criticism from the Bush administration for not fulfilling Israel's commitments according to the "road map" plan, including the dismantlement of unauthorized outposts and the freezing of settlement construction. In addition, despite American objections, Sharon has vowed to continue construction of the security fence.
Sharon has expressed his willingness to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), even though Abu Ala has not begun to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and despite his connection to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Shinui Party peace plan
According to the centrist Shinui Party's peace plan, formulated this month, Israel will renew the peace process with the Abu Ala government with the intention of reaching an arrangement in accordance with the "road map."
The Shinui plan calls for the declaration of an unlimited cease-fire, with the Palestinian Authority making every effort for the ending of terror and the break up of the terror organizations, either by force or by peaceful means. Israel will stop all targeted killing, except against terrorists who continue to initiate and carry out acts of terror.
If the cease-fire holds, Israel would replace the settlers in Netzarim with soldiers, with the idea to also evacuate them when the time comes, according to the Shinui plan.
The Government will hold new deliberations on the matter of the route of the security fence "with the goal of building a simpler and less expensive fence faster," the Shinui plan says.
Due to its centrist nature, not all of Shinui's fifteen Knesset members support their party's peace plan, and some have been granted the freedom to vote against the Netzarim withdrawal clause if the plan comes up for a vote in the Knesset Plenum.
Labor Party peace platform
This week the opposition Labor Party's political council announced its principles for a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The meeting was attended by party chairman MK Shimon Peres, Knesset members Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Haim Ramon, Amram Mitzna, Matan Vilnai, Ephraim Sneh and former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.
Labor's plan is based on a return to the June 4, 1967 borders "with slight revisions due to security reasons and around blocs of Jewish settlements." Jerusalem would be divided into Israeli and Palestinian capitals based on the principle of "what is Jewish to the Jews, and what is Arab to the Arabs." The Labor plan expresses opposition to the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees, and calls for the immediate building of the security-separation fence on the Green Line (1967 border). All "illegal" outposts are to be dismantled immediately according to the Labor plan.
According to the plan, Israel will negotiate with the Palestinian Authority but in parallel will continue to fight terror. There was no consensus at the Labor meeting whether Israel should unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip if an agreement with the Palestinians was impossible to reach.
Geneva Accord
The "Geneva Accord" is the name of a proposed final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that was initiated by former justice minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian minister of information Yasser Abed Rabbo. Talks on the agreement took place over the past year and were funded, in part, by the Swiss government. Israelis who signed the agreement included Labor MKs Amram Mitzna, Avraham Burg, Yuli Tamir and MK Haim Oron (Meretz), former MK Nehama Ronen; Brig.-Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar and author Amos Oz.
Almost two million copies of the 47-page detailed agreement were mailed to Israeli households this month and Arabic copies have been prepared for Israeli Arabs and for distribution to Palestinians in the West Bank. A Russian translation of the document is being prepared.
According to a public opinion poll jointly sponsored by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston and the International Crisis Group in Washington, DC , 53.3 percent of Israelis polled said they would support such a proposal while 43.9 percent said they would oppose it. On the Palestinian side, 55.6 percent expressed support.
The agreement details the establishment of an independent Palestine living alongside Israel, with borders between the states based on the 1967 lines with slight modifications. A symbolic number of Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel proper; other refugees would receive compensation from international funds and would be accepted either into Palestine or the countries in which they are currently residing.
According to the plan, Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem would be under Israeli sovereignty and Arab neighborhoods would be under Palestinian sovereignty. An international religious authority would control central holy sites, with the Temple Mount officially under Palestinian sovereignty and the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter of the Old City under Israeli sovereignty.
Next week, an official "signing" ceremony will take place in Geneva, although the Geneva Accord will not actually be signed. Expected to attend the event are the initiators of the accord, Israeli artists Aviv Geffen and Zehava Ben, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, actor Richard Dreyfuss, and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
More information can be found on the Geneva Accord website.
Peoples' Voice
The Peoples' Voice initiative was launched in June by former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon and Sari Nusseibeh, the former PLO representative in Jerusalem. The goal of the initiative is to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures that would force decision makers on both sides to compromise towards a negotiated solution based on 1967 borders. According to Ayalon and Nusseibeh, they have collected 160,000 signatures - 100,000 Israelis and 60,000 Palestinians.
Ayalon and Nusseibeh's initiative is based on a concise, six-point Statement of Principles, which call for a demilitarized Palestinian state; an open Jerusalem; and international compensation for Palestinian refugees. See: Peoples' Voice - Statement of Principles.
"People to people initiatives can play an essential role in generating the momentum needed for peace," declared UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan after meeting with Ayalon and Nusseibeh in October. But Annan stressed that "there is no substitute for the official representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian people returning to the negotiating table and progressing down the road to peace as called for in the Road Map," according to a statement issued by Annan's office.
More information can be found on the Peoples' Voice website.
Yesha Council plan
The Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip and hardliner members of the Likud Party are preparing a diplomatic alternative to Sharon's suggestion of "unilateral steps." The bottom line of the plan, which is not yet finalized, is extending Israeli sovereignty to all of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
According to media reports, at the heart of the right-wing proposal is the principle that no independent Palestinian state would be created west of the Jordan River. Instead, Israel and the territories would be partitioned into ten cantons, with two of them created for the Palestinians - one in the Gaza Strip and one in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian Arabs would be offered Israeli citizenship, and granted the right to vote for the Knesset, but the cantons would be granted representation based on factors other than population guaranteeing a Jewish majority at all times. According to the plan, only Jews could serve as Israel's prime minister but his deputy could be an Arab.
A number of far-right West Bank rabbis and activists condemned the Yesha plan as "a destructive move, a surrender to terrorism, and betrayal of the homeland, and a grave danger to Israel... We reject any agreement to partition of the Land [whether it is called] autonomy, self-government, cantons or territorial strips for Arabs," said a petition signed by Rabbis Dov Leor of Kiryat Arba, Shlomo Aviner of Beit El, and Menachem Felix of Elon Moreh and others.
The Elon Peace Plan
Tourism Minister Benny Elon (National Union) says that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the West Bank), as proposed in plans such as the "Road Map", will only prolong the Arab-Israeli conflict and exact a heavy toll in human life. Instead, Elon calls for a "regional solution based on geopolitical and economic logic."
Elon's peace plan, which he has promoted in Israel and among Christian supporters of Israel in the United States, calls for two genuine, sovereign states - a Jewish State to the west of the Jordan River and a Palestinian Arab state to the east of the Jordan River.
"Israel, the United States and the international community will recognize the Kingdom of Jordan as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinians. Jordan will once again recognize itself as the Palestinian nation-state," according to the Elon Peace Plan.
More details can be found on the Elon Peace Plan website.
One Voice
One Voice is a grassroots peace initiative that seeks to find common ground between the "silent majority" of Israelis and Palestinians. The initiative is supported by a star-studded list of celebrity backers, including actor Brad Pitt; his wife, actress Jennifer Aniston; actors Edward Norton and Jason Alexander; former boxing champion Muhammad Ali; and the husband and wife team of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.
One Voice says it has managed to "achieve consensus on 20 Pillars that may form the basis for Palestinian-Israeli conflict resolution." The so-called "pillars," which are still confidential, "are the beginning of a process to achieve historic grassroots consensus for conflict resolution," according to the One Voice website.
More information can be found on the One Voice website.
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