The long road to the Promised Land stretched six thousand miles this weekend, from the shores of the Mediterranean to Annapolis, Md. The travelers were Israelis and Palestinians, delegates from sixteen Arab countries, for a total of fifty emissaries of various backgrounds.
They attended a conference called by the United States on bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians through the creation of a state of Palestine, side by side with Israel. It was the third conference of its kind, the first two having failed. President George W. Bush had announced his support of a two - state solution, as it has become known. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to the region eight times in preparation for the conference. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Machmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, have been negotiating for months on their own, with American support of back patting and cash to both parties.
The conference took the official form of a single day, Monday, with announcements made today. Regular negotiations between the two parties would begin December 12, to be completed by the end of next year. “There is no path other than the path of peace,” Abbas declared at the end of the day. Barak spoke of “painful compromises for both of us, the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
But even before the conference began, and as it took place, Palestinians demonstrated against it all over the West Bank, clashing with police, calling Abbas a traitor. In the Gaza Strip, where Chamas rules over some 1.5 million, the position was clear: Israel has no right to exist.
On the Israeli side, right wing members of Barak’s coalition have threatened to bolt, bringing his government down. The fact also is that Abbas has been unable to keep his pledge to the Israelis of putting an end to terrorism. He has not cracked down on the rain of rockets fired on Israeli settlements primarily by his Fatach-sponsored El Aksa Martyrs Brigade from the edge of the Gaza Strip. He has no impact on Chamas, which continues its own terroristic activities against the people of Israel.
The issues remain the same as they have been for years: Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their capital. They feel their people have the Right of Return to the homes they left behind during the wars with Israel. And Israel has been expanding its settlements on the West Bank, where now several hundred thousand live.
What has changed? Words, words, words. We heard them then, we hear them now. The fact is that the Jews began returning to Palestine more than one hundred years ago, to what they consider the Promised Land, to what was their homeland beginning with Biblical times. The Palestinians opposed this return almost from the start. They consider the Israelis intruders. They seem unable to accept the Jewish state as a fact. The Israelis on the right hold on to the concept that the Promised Land runs from the river to the sea.
This coming May, Israel will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. Here’s hoping it will be half way toward change, toward peace.
