Is the 2003 Geneva Accord a just resolution to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict?
General Reference (not clearly pro or con)
The Associated Press stated in a Dec. 1, 2003 article by Ravi Nessman titled "Mideast Activists Launch Peace 'Accord,'":
"The 'Geneva accord,' negotiated over almost three years by former Israeli and Palestinian officials, tackles the issues that have torpedoed other peace efforts: the fate of Israeli settlements, the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees...
The agreement envisions a Palestinian state based roughly on the borders before the 1967 Mideast war. Most Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be dismantled. It divides sovereignty in Jerusalem, but avoids a large-scale return to Israel by Palestinians who fled or were driven out in the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation."
Abdullah bin Al Hussein, II, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, quoted in a Dec. 7, 2003 CNN.com article titled "Palestinians Can't Agree on Cease-Fire," stated:
"I
think that any initiative that complements the peace process, that
tries to move the process forward -- and the principles in the Geneva
accord are actually in line with the road map -- I think it can only be
a positive thing."
Amos Oz, Professor of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, in an Oct. 17, 2003 The Guardian (UK) article, entitled "We Have Done the Gruntwork of Peace," stated:
"The goal of the exercise (Geneva Accord) is solely to
present the Israeli and Palestinian publics with a window through
which they can view a different landscape - no more car bombs and
suicide bombers and occupation and oppression and expropriation,
no more endless war and hatred. Instead, here is a detailed,
cautious solution that does not circumvent any one of the
fundamental questions.
Its fundamental principle is: we end the occupation and the
Palestinians end their war against Israel..."
Ami Isseroff, DSc, Director of the MidEastWeb for Coexistence, in a Dec. 10, 2003 article titled "Geneva Accord: Spelling out the Real Alternatives," wrote:
"The Geneva Accord is not the
'killer app' of peace proposals. It is incomplete. It has not been
signed. It doesn't have the support of a majority on either side as
yet. It has attracted a storm of criticism from extremists as well as
from the Israeli government... However, if we reject these proposals,..
we will find that what they (critics) are offering instead of the
Accord, is in fact worse than nothing."
Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, MD, the late leader of Hamas, in a Dec. 2, 2003 Reuters article titled "Palestinian Militants Step Up Campaign Against `Scandalous' Draft Peace Deal," published by Haaretz, said of the Geneva Accord:
"We will fight it [the Geneva Accord] and it will collapse like all
other projects of liquidation against the
Palestinian cause."
Dore Gold, PhD, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, in a Dec. 7, 2003 CNN.com article titled "Palestinians Can't Agree on Cease-Fire," said of the Geneva Accord:
"... [T]he talks sounded like a
discussion between men about which Israelis you can kill and which
Israelis you can't kill. Obviously, we can't give this our blessing...
There is only one source of authority in this country that can
negotiate peace agreements with our neighbors or with representatives
of our neighbors, and that's the elected government of Israel."
