Virtual Plan for Real Peace

It’s not a real agreement, and the men who drafted it are no longer in government, yet the “virtual” accord for peace between Israel and the Palestinians unveiled in Geneva on Monday has won deserved support. This backing -- in the face of denunciations by the Israelis now running the country and Palestinian extremist groups bent on Israel’s destruction -- indicates the hunger for an end to decades of Mideast violence.

Nearly 60 former presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other top international officials endorsed the blueprint, which calls for concessions by Palestinians and Israelis and eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. Prominent among the supporters was former President Carter, who brought the leaders of Israel and Egypt together at Camp David a quarter-century ago. More important than the foreign support was the backing of several hundred Israelis and Palestinians who flew to Geneva. Polls show that a majority of Palestinians and Israelis favor the basic elements included in the agreement.

Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister, and Yasser Abed-Rabbo, former information minister in the Palestinian Authority, worked on the agreement for nearly three years. Both men negotiated for their governments while in office; their document resembles the peace agreement that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat spurned in the waning days of the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, Arafat did not formally endorse this new blueprint either. In all-too-typical fashion, he tried to have it both ways, withholding his imprimatur but lending tacit support.

Beilin and Rabbo said they hoped debate over the agreement would revive the push for peace, stalemated by the renewal of Palestinian violence more than three years ago and Israeli intransigence in response. Support for Beilin and Rabbo should push Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to meet with Ahmed Korei, the new Palestinian Authority prime minister. Korei should abandon his futile insistence that Israel stop building its security barrier along the West Bank before he will meet with Sharon. Israel’s stubbornness is obvious from its willingness to brave international condemnation of the barrier. Washington has refused to guarantee $289.5 million in loans to Israel because of its barrier and its continued building of settlements in the West Bank.

The Bush administration dispatched William J. Burns, a senior diplomat, to the region last week to try to revive its version of a peace agreement, the “road map.” That document lays out, step by step, measures for both sides, starting with the Israelis dismantling settlement outposts in the occupied territories and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorists. This plan still merits support. But the impressive display of support for the informal Geneva accords also should translate into renewed efforts by elected Israeli and Palestinian representatives to achieve the same goal -- two states at peace with each other.