Activist calls for 'divorce' in Mideast crisis

Peace in the Middle East requires the existence of Israel and Palestine as two sovereign nations, said Amos Oz, Israeli author and collaborator in the creation of the so-called Geneva Accords.

Oz expressed his desire for the end of the conflict, saying he hopes "to become one day a former peace activist." The Geneva Accords, a comprehensive document detailing a model peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, may make this hope a real possibility, he said.

Constructed jointly by both Israelis and Palestinians over a period of two years without any publicity, the Geneva Accords, said Oz, represent the first time in the history of the conflict that all issues, even the most "explosive," have been addressed. There is "no more so-called creative ambiguity," said Oz. "The idea is not to leave black holes for the future."

Oz contrasted the settlements proposed in the Geneva Accords to the Oslo Accords and Camp David agreement of 2000. Oz stressed Geneva's focus on "painful compromise, painful to the point of clenched teeth."

Detailing the histories of both the Israeli and Palestinian people, Oz said both groups live in Israel "because they have no other place to call home." Both sides, he said, have powerful reasons to claim the land.

The Israelis and Palestinians are each fighting two wars, one for existence and national liberation and the other a "shady war" aimed at suppression of the other group. It is not easy, Oz said, to draw the line between them.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has two victims. The American and European desire to distinguish the "good guys" from the "bad guys" cannot be fulfilled, he said.

Oz likened the only way to end "the hell that the Israeli occupation is giving the Palestinians and the hell that the Palestinian terrorism is giving the Israelis" to a divorce. Through the propositions of the Geneva Accords, "I expect a fair and just, if painful, divorce between Israel and Palestine," he said.

Citing polls of both Israelis and Palestinians, the vast majority of both groups are "unhappily ready for a two-state solution," said Oz. He finds this fact encouraging – both groups have moved past refusing to even recognize the existence of the other.

Highlighting the compromise present in the Geneva Accords, Oz discussed the two biggest concessions of the document. The Israelis offer to share the Temple Mount with the Palestinians. The Palestinians, in turn relinquish their right of return to Israel.

Oz acknowledged that certain emotional issues, like who is truly at fault, cannot be resolved immediately. Agreement on that detail is not necessary, he said. "There is no need to agree about the past. We need to agree and have agreed about the present and the future."

Comparing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a tragedy, Oz contrasted two possible conclusions. At the end of a Shakespearean tragedy, "the stage is littered with dead bodies." In a Chekhovian tragedy, "everyone is disillusioned, bitter, melancholy, but alive."