AP, JERUSALEM (AP)–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.
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 U.S.-backed “road map'' peace plan stalled amid violence and internal Palestinian wrangling. All these initiatives dodged the big issues, 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.''
A poll in the Yediot Ahronot daily showed 39 percent of Israelis backed it, though a poll Friday in Maariv put support at between 27 percent and 33 percent, depending on how the question was worded.
A third plan called “One Voice'' harnesses people power and Hollywood. It is backed by academics, former U.S. officials and actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. Its Web site at www.silentnolonger.com claims support from actors Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Edward Norton.
Perlman says she and her husband, DeVito, were approached by the initiative's founders last year and found them so compelling and levelheaded, “it seemed impossible not to get involved.''
Since then, they have held a fundraiser for the group and joined its honorary board of advisers.
The plan has brought together experts to create 20 secret pillars to solving the conflict. Those are now being put to focus groups of Palestinians and Israelis.
After the revisions, Israelis and Palestinians aged over 15 would vote through the internet, the mail, the telephone, at public events and in door-to-door campaigns.
“The idea is to have a collective position and not just be an intellectual exercise, but to have the backing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis in drafting what we will call a real people's mandate,'' said Mohammad Darawshe, an Israeli Arab who is Mideast director of the initiative.
One Voice volunteers have canvassed several Palestinian towns to promote their effort, with mixed results: alongside displays of support there have been physical threats and arguments.
Levy, the Geneva negotiator, is sarcastic about the One Voice approach.
“What they're going to find is most Israelis and Palestinians support a withdrawal. They support an end to violence and they disagree over refugees and Jerusalem,'' he said. “Fantastic!''
But all the plans also aim to reinvigorate the peace camps and put pressure on the leaders to react.
“The presentation of a ray of hope to the backdrop of such a black situation … could work to (our) advantage,'' he said.
