Clarity in Mideast Chaos

The violence that has continued into this week in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel has all but swamped the findings of an American-led international inquiry into the causes of the now 7-month-old conflict. The committee, led by former Sen. George J. Mitchell, deserves more attention. Cutting through the propaganda of both sides, its draft report goes beyond identifying the immediate causes of what is now called “the Al Aqsa intifada” to propose steps essential for reducing violence and resuming political dialogue.

The heavily guarded visit made to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sept. 28 by Ariel Sharon, then an opposition politician, now prime minister, did not cause the intifada, the committee found, though its provocative effect “should have been foreseen.” More significant in fueling the violence was the lethal force Israeli police used against Palestinian demonstrators the next day, the first fateful step toward an abandonment of restraint on both sides. The political background to this confrontation did much to direct the course of events. Perceptions on each side that the other had failed to comply with agreements reached since the opening of the peace process had steadily undercut trust and helped set the stage for an explosion.

The committee found no basis to the claim by Sharon and others that the Palestinians were simply waiting for a pretext to launch a long-planned insurgency. At the same time, it rejected the Palestinian Authority’s demand for an international observer force to be interposed between Israelis and Palestinians. The panel recognizes, as does the U.S., that only when the two sides are ready to resume direct good-faith contact can peace hopes be revived and U.S. participation be of any use.

To advance that goal, the committee proposes a number of confidence-building measures. Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including “natural growth” expansion that continues to gobble up Palestinian territory. That is in line with American policy and with international law, which holds the settlements to be illegal. It’s time for Washington not just to affirm its position but to insist firmly on a full freeze.

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, should move vigorously to jail terrorists--it knows who they are--and use its forces to rein in violence. For humanitarian as well as political reasons, Israel should begin releasing impounded Palestinian taxes and allow Palestinian workers back into Israel.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres finds the report “fair and balanced,” and it has been welcomed by Palestinian officials as well. What remains is for the two governments finally to acknowledge the pointlessness of the continuing violence and act to end it.