PRO-CON: Is it time to push for a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians?

Avi Shaked, co-founder, Geneva Initiative (YES side); Lawrence J. Haas, vice president, Committee on the Present Danger (NO side)

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YES Not so long ago, President Bush and his administration urged all parties to renew a peace initiative in my region. I believe the peace can be won — indeed, it may be near — if we marshal the willpower to make it happen.

Israel’s primary interest today is to transform the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories into one joint country, or in case this is not possible into two sovereign countries. Israel’s only concern should be which of these two entities will become sovereign as soon as possible, with clear borders and responsibility for the actions coming from its territory.

Only after this transformation is completed will the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have the same interest of stopping all acts of aggression toward Israel. It is in Israel’s best interest, as a law-abiding state with clear boundaries, to have a regulated state on the other side as well — a state that has something to lose.

Peace is near and we must not stop our efforts to advance along this important path. Avi Shaked, co-founder, Geneva Initiative NO No issue of public policy is hidden in more layers of mythology than the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Conventional wisdom has held that the path to peace runs through Jerusalem, that Arab hostility toward the Jewish state is rooted in sympathy with the Palestinian cause, and that Israeli concessions to the Palestinians will lead to not just Israeli-Palestinian peace but also to reduced tensions across the region.

A myth dies hard, especially when so many nations have grown accustomed to it. But this myth is not just wrong; it’s dangerous to U.S. national security.

President Bush’s pledge to seek an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by year-end is guaranteed to fail because it lacks: ■ Strong national leaders on both sides who can cut a deal. ■ Populations that trust each other enough to enforce it. ■ Neighboring states that will support it. Lawrence J. Haas, vice president, Committee on the Present Danger

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “Kansas City Star”.

Context added by this archive

A pro-con with two Israeli/American voices and no Palestinian voice on either side of the question ‘is it time to push for a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians?’.

The accompanying AP photo shows Israeli soldiers in Gaza passing graffiti that reads ‘FREE PALESTIN… / ZIONISM IS…’; the lettering runs off the edge of the frame and is not fully legible, so it is not transcribed.

Cite this clipping

"PRO-CON: Is it time to push for a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians?," The Kansas City Star, 4 March 2008. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2008-023. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2008-023