12/8/03

Geneva: Starting point for peace

By STEVE BERMAN

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to witness the signing of the Geneva Peace Accord. There Israelis and Palestinians met to try to break the chains of history and take a new path toward peace.

Witnessed by 1,100 members of the world community, including large delegations of Israelis and Palestinians, a new era of hope was ushered in by former, and most certainly future, government officials of both entities. The Geneva Accord, funded by the Swiss government and promoted across the world, is a 50-page document that, according to co-author Yasser Abed Rabbo, "imagines peace in detail."

This so-called "shadow agreement" would create a Palestinian state and resolve the status of Palestinian refugees, borders in Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.

The underlying current leading up to this event was the question of legitimacy. Who did these negotiators represent and did they have the right to commit their people to anything binding? Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called the agreement treasonous. Through his representatives, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat provided drama in typical fashion, simultaneously winking approval and frowning with disdain.

These negotiators are from all walks of political life (much to my surprise, I even met a member of Sharon's Likud party at the ceremony) who have one goal: prove there is a partner in peace and that there is a plan. They have exposed the raw failure of Sharon's and Arafat's policies of sustaining ever-increasing amounts of violence as a means of conflict resolution.

The large ceremonial hall in Geneva was surrounded with intense security and filled with an international flavor. Speakers from the Swiss government, Nobel Laureates Lech Walesa and Jonathan Hume spoke on a dais decorated with two large banners loudly proclaiming "There Is A Partner" and "There Is A Plan." Yossi Beilin, former Israeli minister of justice and lead architect of the plan, said the accord is determined to demonstrate that "our condition is not terminal; there is a cure."

Our own Jimmy Carter made the trip for the occasion and spoke eloquently. Carter succinctly pointed out "the only alternative to the Geneva Accord is sustained and permanent violence."

The accord has introduced a new leadership that proves to both sides of the border that the demonized images of the other are not the only truth. Geneva shows there is a different path that can be taken toward resolving the matter of two peoples and one land.

Walking the streets of Geneva, I was struck by all the watch stores. Time takes on a whole new meaning in Switzerland. Ebel, Rolex, Swatch; the names are everywhere. The precision of time and its forward march are omnipresent.

In the Middle East, where time seems to march at a much slower pace, the matters of peace may have taken on a new sense of urgency in time-sensitive Geneva.

Steve Berman is an Atlanta commercial real estate developer and Jewish community activist.