Now Is the Time to Create Movement on the Middle East Peace Front

Editorial from The Daily Star

"Now" is always a good time for proactive initiatives to get the Mid-east

peace process moving. Right now, as in today and the coming weeks, is,

however, a period much richer than usual in its potential to yield positive

results.

Why is this the case? Because the European Union aspires to a greater

regional role and the UN special envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed

Larsen, is currently on the job, on the ground. Because Turkey aspires to

join the EU and enjoys influential good relations with Israel at the same

time as being a subtle player in regional politics.

So what do the above mean? Taken together, it means an opportunity exists

for the Palestinians to marshal European and Turkish regional interests

into a Brussels-Ankara diplomatic pincer to create a new political reality.

But before this can happen the Palestinians, and especially the

hard-liners, must be prepared to put aside their most pointed differences,

and their arms, at least temporarily, to work for a common goal.

This is, of course, easier said than done, but the effort must be made. The

Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be capped in 2005 - the year tentatively

set for the creation of an independent Palestinian state according to the

"road map" being administered by the "Quartet" of the United States, EU,

Russia and the UN. It would be unwise of the Palestinians to wait until

after the US elections in November before throwing what weight they have

behind moves to make their state more than a dream.

In short, the Palestinians would be doing themselves, and the majority of

Israelis who also desire peace, a great service if they push the diplomatic

front forward, now, before the US elections, so that a new US

administration will find something already on the table come year's end.

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Source: The Daily Star, July 9, 2004

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Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.

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