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The Geneva Accord: Hope for a Future of Peace and Security

The Jewish State
February 20, 2004

Steven David Masters

What I witnessed in Geneva exceeded any expectations I could have had. When I came home, however, I was saddened to see critical headlines and articles in the Jewish press and the low profile given the ceremony in the U.S. mass media.

In Geneva I met Israeli and Palestinian political, military and security leaders who had struggled through their frustration and anger to complete a comprehensive peace agreement that resolves the outstanding claims between the two peoples, including solutions to issues such as the fate of Palestinian refugees and the sacred places in the Old City of Jerusalem.

For me the highlight of the ceremony was the emotional high shared by the Israeli and Palestinian delegations as they stood together and received a standing ovation from the crowd. As former Israeli Justice Minister Yosi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Abed Rabbo beamed, it felt as if the whole room joined in embracing these courageous peacemakers.

I knew that the negotiations had been contentious because we saw video clips of difficult sessions where negotiators were unmistakably tense and frustrated. Now all of that was behind them. This was especially poignant when Lt. General Amnon Shahak and Brig. General Zuheir Manasra stood together on the stage: during the first initifadah, Shahak had signed the order placing Manasra in administrative detention.

As a witness I want to report the following. My ears are sensitive to anti-Israel rhetoric and I did not hear any from the speakers in Geneva. Israelis, world leaders and Palestinians called for an end to Palestinian terrorism. Yasser Abed Rabbo devoted much of his talk to a special appeal to world Jewry to join together to make the spirit of Geneva a reality.

Some have challenged the Geneva Accord by arguing that it undermines the elected government of Israel since it was negotiated by political figures who were voted out of power and lacked any electoral mandate to engage in such a detailed course of negotiations. This critique is seriously flawed because it fails to grapple with the utter failure of the Sharon government's attempts to improve Israeli security through a policy of massive military incursions, closures, checkpoints and sieges; now conceded by leading figures in the Sharon cabinet and the IDF. In the face of this catastrophic failure, the architects of the Geneva Accord felt compelled to act. As Yasser Abed Rabbo explained, they asked themselves "What are we to do when our governments do not meet their obligation to show what negotiations can yield?" The negotiation of the Geneva Accord was not an attempt to derail an elected government, but rather to demonstrate a way out of the cycle of violence, terror, hopelessness and despair.

The Geneva Accord has brought an end to the accepted wisdom in Israel that "there is no one to talk to and nothing to talk about" by demonstrating that there is indeed someone to talk to and something to talk about. After a copy of the Accord was mailed to every home in Israel, Israelis have been consumed with debating and discussing the document. A recent poll from the Baker Institute for Public Policy found that 53 percent of the Israelis and almost 56 percent of the Palestinians support the Spirit of Geneva. A similar peace initiative called the People's Voice, launched recently by former Mossad Director Ami Ayalon and PLO leader Sari Nuseibeh, has garnered signatures from over 160,000 Israelis and 100,000 Palestinians.

Today Israel is a nation whose citizens share an increasing sense of despair about their government's failure to protect them from suicide bombings and terrorist strikes through military actions alone. The Geneva Accord has provided a rare dose of hope for a future of peace and security.

Israel's friends in Congress such as Congresswoman Lois Capps and Senator Dianne Feinstein, sensing both the urgency of the security crisis facing Israel and the unique promise offered by the Geneva initiative, have introduced Congressional resolutions (S. Res. 276 and H. Res. 479) to support the spirit of the Geneva initiative. Senator Lautenberg and Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. should be commended for co-sponsoring these resolutions and the rest of New Jersey's Congressional delegation should be encouraged to join them as co-sponsors.

Steven David Masters is a member of the board and National Chair for Advocacy and Public Policy of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace. Mr. Masters and Israeli Peace Activist Gila Svirsky will be speaking at "Getting To Peace Between the Israelis and Palestinians: An Inside Look at the Geneva Accord and the Israeli Peace Movement," Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 8 p.m. at the Rutgers Labor Education Center, Ryders Lane, New Brunswick. Sponsored by the I.L. Peretz Secular Jewish Community. For more information call (732) 545-9691 or info@ilperetz.org