"I simply am not prepared to live in a world where things can't be solved"
Yossi Beilin - Haaretz, March 7, 1997
[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It would appear from news reports that FM Livni is
proposing something similar - bypassing the Road Map stage of Palestinian
security compliance and moving on to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian
state.]

=========

There is something that can be done
By Gideon Samet Haaretz Last Update: 17/11/2006 10:29
www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=beilin&itemNo=789163

How many more times are we going to hear that all the killing, the withering
of hope, will continue until Gilad Shalit is returned? That is what, in
effect, the prime minister says as Qassam rockets falling on towns and
villages in the South make a mockery of the rehashed military campaigns and
the political standstill. How far can our curiosity be strained with Ehud
Olmert's declarations that he is going to surprise the world with
concessions, if Abu Mazen will just agree to talk with him? There is nothing
to disturb Olmert from speaking with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas, and from revealing to him at last what he intends to do. Olmert is
the one who is stopping Olmert from doing this.

And what have the Israelis done to deserve the incessant ranting that there
is no one to talk to? There is someone to talk to and there is something
that can be done, if one would only want to do so. Yossi Beilin has once
again proven that. In his quiet way, behind the scenes, he has spent the
past few months preparing a platform for negotiations. So far he has not
published it. Beilin believes in clandestine work, until it bears some
results. But while those indefatigably opposed to an agreement continue to
scorn the Oslo accords, without offering an alternative, the new Beilin
document presents a well-phrased path for moving rationally and gradually
toward talks on a permanent status solution. He and his advisers have chosen
an appropriate time. America is withdrawing from the caprices of the
neo-Conservatives and the semi-religious belief that only force can work.
Its president has already made all the mistakes and is now searching for an
alternative.

James Baker, who was the strong-handed secretary of state in George Bush
senior's administration, and Lee Hamilton, the former chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives, are preparing
to conclude a plan for changing American policy in the Middle East, at the
president's request.

If Bush decides to adopt this paper, the much delayed moment will arrive
when the United States begins to operate in this region on the basis of
different assumptions. And of course it is imperative, as a result of Iran's
stance, that Washington's international politics be adapted to its real
needs. Beilin and his aides met everyone who is anyone in the PA in the
course of preparing the document: Abbas, close advisers such as Yasser Abed
Rabbo, Saeb Erekat and Salam Fayyad. Two days before Olmert's visit began,
Beilin delivered the document in Washington to David Welch, the assistant
secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs; Kofi Annan in New York and the
leading figures in the European diplomatic scene, such as Javier Solana.
This is not some haphazard list of personalities. If Olmert had done even
some of this, Shalit would already have been in his hands for some time, and
the town of Sderot apparently would not have had to bury its dead.

Beilin intentionally did not speak to representatives of Hamas. He
intelligently left this to the chairman of the PA, and the latter, for his
part, not coincidentally chose this week to deliver an appeasement speech
and an invitation to negotiations ("Don't miss peace"). The paper proposes
skipping the first stage of the road map, which has been experiencing a slow
death for years, and to begin discussing large-scale Israeli withdrawals
from the territories. The decision will be in the hands of the PA whether to
establish a state within temporary borders. In the proposed talks, of
course, the first decision will regard instituting a cease-fire. The PA will
release Shalit in conjunction with the release of a significant number of
Palestinian prisoners (after all, Olmert has promised to do so) and the
alleviation of the disgraceful conditions in the Gaza Strip.

The issues of Jerusalem and the refugees will be discussed in the next stage
of the negotiations on the final status agreement, with the assistance of
the United States, the European Union and the "Arab quartet" - Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. The arrangement will be based
on the 1967 lines and the moderate Saudi proposal, which has twice been
adopted in the past four years by the Arab countries at their summit, with
"changes that reflect the security and demographic reality as agreed upon by
the two sides."

Let those in the right-wing who detest Beilin say whatever they want. The
new Beilin document, first published in these pages, proposes what Olmert,
with his wiles, was duty-bound to have done a long time ago. The proposal,
whose full details go beyond the limits of this column, does not have tight
assurances of success. It is outlined here as renewed proof that quiet and
tranquility will not be our lot if there is no end to the irresponsible
politics of the prime minister - a man whose words are not bad but whose
deeds are a dangerous failure.