Overlooked Opening for Mideast Peace

by Daoud Kuttab

JERUSALEM -- The Bush administration is passing up an important possibility

for winning the war on terrorism: a military intervention and international

supervision of elections in Palestine.

Few anti-terrorism experts would disagree that solving the Israel-Palestine

conflict can offer an important impetus for winning the global war on

terrorism. Failure to resolve this conflict has been repeatedly stated as a

source of irritation in the Arab, Islamic and most of the developing world.

Every conceivable peace plan has faltered over one issue: the cycle of

violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Whether it is the assassination

of Palestinian leaders, bulldozing of Palestinian homes and digging up of

Palestinian lands, or armed attacks against Israeli soldiers and suicide

attacks against civilians, the underlying impediment has been the unending

violence. Stopping the violence is the fastest road to peace.

But neither Palestinians nor Israelis have been willing or able to stop the

violence. The most obvious solution is clear: a neutral, armed, outside

force. And surprisingly enough, neither Palestinians nor Israelis are

strongly opposed to such a possibility.

Palestinian officials and the public alike have been on the record urging

the international community to intervene militarily. Palestinian leaders

have repeatedly called on the international community to activate the "Road

Map" clause calling for armed monitors. Palestinians have endorsed the plan

drawn up by the United States, the United Nations, Europe and Russia.

Although it has expressed fourteen reservations about the plan, Israel is

also on the record accepting the Road Map.

The importance of outside military intervention has never been clearer.

With every Israeli incursion and every Palestinian bombing, innocent

civilians on either side pay a heavy price. The Israeli army insists on

being tough, to create a sense of deterrence. Palestinians refuse to appear

weak and insist on taking revenge. The result is a cycle of violence.

Both sides seem bent on making sure they get in the last licks. This cycle

of violence has gotten worse as the Israeli prime minister has indicated a

willingness to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. Israel worries that such a

withdrawal would be viewed as a sign of weakness. Therefore Israelis have

escalated their violence against Palestinians, an escalation that climaxed

recently with the assassination of the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik

Ahmed Yassin.

A foreign military intervention is seen by many as the only way to end this

fatal embrace. The military force could be a U.N. multinational one, a NATO

force or even a U.S. one. While Israel has repeatedly refused to consider

such an idea, many in that country believe their government would have a

hard time refusing to allow a U.S.-led force to act as a buffer between

Palestinians and Israelis.

Such a force should be temporary and be deployed as part of a cease-fire

agreement between both sides. It should be part of a plan that encourages

both sides to sit down and hold serious political negotiations without the

constant interference of violence by this party or that, this radical group

or that right-wing ideologue.

The presence of such an international peacekeeping force could also provide

a chance for the Palestinian people to carry out overdue elections: local,

parliamentary and presidential. The last time Palestinians chose their

mayors and city council members was in 1982. Legislative and presidential

elections were held in 1995.

The siege on Palestinian territories and the security situation have made

it impossible to hold elections. With the convening of elections, the

Palestinian body politic would get badly needed young blood to replace the

existing leadership, which has largely failed its people. Elections would

also provide various political groups, including the Islamists, with a

civilized, tangible and productive way to reflect their political ideas.

The Bush administration has made important political progress by declaring

a vision for peace in the Middle East based on an independent and viable

Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure state of Israel, by 2005. For

this vision to be implemented, an immediate end to the cycle of violence is

crucial. Right-wing expansionist politics, hatred, anger and desire for

revenge have fueled the fatal present cycle of violence. The intervention

of an international military force to put an end to the violence and

prepare for local and national elections would go a long way toward

fulfilling this plan for a two-state solution. And it would undoubtedly

stabilize the Middle East, removing a problem that has been a major source

of terrorism and anger in the region and the world.