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Jonathan Friendly is the national editor of , which owns the weekly Jewish newspapers in Detroit and Atlanta. He is a former journalism professor at the University of Michigan and a former reporter and editor at The New York Times.
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By Jonathan Friendly
November 20, 2003
Much is being made this week of the "Geneva Accord," an unofficial plan for settling the disputes between Israel and the Palestinians. Every home in Israel was due to get a copy of the agreement that was "negotiated" between a handful of out-of-power Israeli leftists led by former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and so-called centrist out-of-power Palestinians led by former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Copies printed in Arabic have been snatched up wildly on the West Bank and in Gaza.
The specifics of the accord itself are unacceptable. It trades away lands vital to Israeli security and fragments what must remain a united Jerusalem on the strength of vague and unenforceable promises that the Palestinians will respect Israel's right to exist and will drop their demand for an unlimited right of return to homes they left 55 years ago. Even former Prime Minister Ehud Barak denounced it, in a lovely turn of phrase, as "the peace of ostriches."
But that is not the issue. The real point is that some people are still trying to find hope amid the prevailing official stalemate of violence and repression.
The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, still clings to his murderous past, refusing to let his new prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, take any effective action to curb the terrorists of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Nor will the Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon, relent in building the security barrier or in expanding settlements across land that will have to become part of any viable Palestinian state.
Despair mounts as the official policies virtually guarantee that innocent civilians will continue to be killed on both sides of the Green Line.
That situation is what gives the Geneva Accord its force. However misguided it is in its details, it is a glimmer of hopefulness in a landscape of anguish.
Polls show that both sides truly want to stop the bloodshed, even if that means they must take a leap of faith about the other's long-range intent. In some ways, the accord is grasping at straws, but at the very least, this out-of-channels document forces large segments of the general publics to think more deeply about what is vitally important to them.
Neither public is ready to jettison its leaders, but they tell pollsters that the leaders' policies are not working. And that, in turn, sets a stage for changes of policy, perhaps heralded by some quiet easing of Israeli restrictions matched simultaneously by meaningful steps to curb the Palestinian terrorists.
Israeli support for a permanent two-state solution is well documented; a rally of 100,000 people earlier this month to remember slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a powerful reminder of that commitment. The trick is to widen a Palestinian dedication to the same goal, possibly by giving greater governmental support to centrist projects in education, health and housing.
With the American-backed road map for Mideast peace moribund, if not finally buried, U.S. policy should not squelch this small effort. Secretary of State Colin Powell was right to say that the accord is "important in helping sustain an atmosphere of hope." British Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan have hailed the accord, which is to be signed Dec. 1 with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South Africa's former leader, Nelson Mandela looking on.
If peace is ever to come to Israel, it will have to take root first in unofficial ways, in the hopes of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. The Geneva Accord may be way off in its details, but its heart is in the right place.
Views expressed by the author do not
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