Frustrated by three years of violence and failed peace initiatives, former government officials, civic leaders and even Hollywood stars such as Danny DeVito have jumped into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, hoping to succeed where their leaders have failed.
While leaders on both sides can't even get a limited agreement off the ground, freelance peacemakers are offering sweeping visions of a final peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.
"It's very essential that people stop feeling desperate and stop being represented by extremists on both sides," said Saman Khoury, a Palestinian negotiator.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The latest proposal, dubbed the Geneva agreement, was negotiated by former officials with Swiss government backing. It would require Israel to hand over almost all its war-won land, but not to accept returning refugees -- parameters that many on both sides are coming to view as inevitable.
Still, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, while saying he welcomed the deal, did not commit himself to it. And Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attacked the Israeli negotiators, most of them opposition members, for going behind his back.
"This agreement promises only false hope. By what right are left-wingers proposing moves that Israel can never make nor will ever make?" he said.
Three years of Israeli-Palestinian violence have destroyed trust on both sides. Israel blames Arafat for the suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 400 Israelis. Palestinians blame Sharon for the military actions that have made their lives a misery.
Even if agreement were reached on the toughest issues -- the borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of Israeli settlements and Palestinian refugees and the possible division of Jerusalem -- it would be hard to make the concessions stick. Many Israelis refuse to consider dividing Jerusalem and abandoning settlements, and Islamic militants are sworn to destroy the Jewish state.
The 1993 Oslo Accords that were greeted with great hopes were narrow and never stopped the violence. Broader-reaching negotiations in 2000 did not meet with success. Even this year's US-backed "road map" peace plan stalled amid violence and internal Palestinian wrangling.
The road map envisaged creating a Palestinian state by 2005 and called for a series of short-term steps -- a Palestinian crack down on militant groups, an end to Israeli settlement building and the lifting of Israeli restrictions on Palestinians. However, it left all the details of borders, refugees and the fate of Jerusalem for a future international conference to decide.
In that respect, it resembled all past initiatives, leaving a huge gap between what the Palestinians and the Israelis expected from a final peace plan.
"This vacuum has been filled right now," said Orni Petruschka, who helped negotiate a peace proposal called the "destination map."
That plan, published earlier this year and posted at www.hashd.org, was championed by Ami Ayalon, the popular former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, and Sari Nusseibeh, the president of Al-Quds University and a leading Palestinian intellectual.
The somewhat vague agreement would establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip generally along the borders that existed before the 1967 Mideast War. Jerusalem would be a shared capital and each side would administer its own holy sites.
Palestinian refugees would give up their claim to homes in Israel they left during the 1948 Mideast War. That "right of return" has been a red flag for Israelis, who fear the influx of Palestinians would dilute Israel's Jewish majority.
More than 50,000 Palestinians and 80,000 Israelis have signed their names to the plan, Petruschka said.
The Geneva plan, negotiated by former Cabinet ministers Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo, has not been published in full but seems to follow the same lines as the "destination map."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia