A Good Divorce -New, tough plan for Middle East peace (Geneva)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/sunopinion/la-op-oz9nov09,1,1991778.story?coll=la-headlines-sunop-manual

A Good Divorce
New, tough plan for Middle East peace urges fair separation of intimate enemies
By Amos Oz
Israeli novelist Amos Oz's most recent book is "The Same Sea."

November 9, 2003

ARAD, Israel — Later this month in Geneva, a document will be formally presented outlining a plan for peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis in separate, adjoining states. The politicians are already sniping.<snip>


Its fundamental principle is this: Israelis end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and Palestinians end their war against Israel. We Israelis give up our dream of Greater Israel and they give up theirs of Greater Palestine. We surrender sovereignty in parts of the land of Israel where our hearts lie, and they do the same. The problem of the 1948 Palestinian refugees, which is really the heart of our national security predicament, is resolved comprehensively, completely, and absolutely outside the borders of the state of Israel. If this initiative is put into action, not a single Palestinian refugee camp, afflicted with despair, neglect, hatred and fanaticism, will remain in the Middle East. In our document, the Palestinian side accepts contractually, finally, and irrevocably that it does not have and will never have any future claims against Israel.

I went to the Israeli-Palestinian conference in Jordan last month for the document's finalizing in a skeptical frame of mind. I estimated that, as so often in the past, we might succeed in drafting a joint declaration of principles about the importance of peace. Both sides would acknowledge a need to halt terror, to end the occupation and oppression, to mutually recognize each other's rights and to live as neighbors in two states for two peoples. Israelis and Palestinians have done all that many times before, at all kinds of conferences and gatherings punctuated with handshakes and public statements. Many times in the last 10 years, our leaders have brought us within striking distance of peace, only to slide again into violence and despair.

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We poured important ideas onto more than 50 pages of paper. And if the publics on both sides accept it, they will find that the grunt work of making peace has already been done. Almost to the last detail. If Sharon and Yasser Arafat want to use this as a basis for an agreement, its authors will not insist on their copyright. And if Sharon presents a different, better, more intricate, more patriotic plan that is also accepted by the other side? We'll congratulate him. Even though Sharon, as everyone knows, is a weighty personage, my friends and I will bear him on our shoulders.