Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I stand — Brian Greenspun: How the United States must ramp up its role in Mideast dialogues

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun. His column appears on Sunday and on occasion during the week.

One more small step for man. Mankind, too.

Finding the way toward a real peace in the Middle East has proved to be significantly harder than the United States finding its way to the moon and back more than 35 years ago.

In fact, just a few years before this country made good on President John F. Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon, Israel wowed the world by defeating the well-financed, well-armed and overwhelmingly manned armies of Arab neighbors bent on pushing the tiny Jewish country into the sea. And since that time, space travel has moved beyond the moon and into the far reaches of the solar system.

Peace in the Middle East hasn't moved very far at all, however.

This week a deal was announced between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that will allow Palestinians to travel into and out of the Gaza Strip -- not as freely as they would like, but far more freely than they have been allowed.

To the unknowing this seems like such a simple and natural act of humanity -- to allow people to travel from one place to another. We take that freedom of movement for granted in the United States, as do most people around the world.

Not long ago, though, people on one side of the Berlin Wall could not travel to the other side. It was that way for four decades. And it was a cause for celebration when that wall came crumbling down and people who yearned to be free were free.

Nowhere was that freedom from the wall celebrated more than in Israel, where a few million Jewish citizens understood, more than any others perhaps, what it meant to live less than free and unable to enjoy what seems like such a basic rule of human existence. And, yet, it has been Israel that has restricted the ability of Gaza residents to move from one place to another.

But unlike those in the past who would restrict human beings from such a basic freedom because of some racist or other malicious reason, Israel's containment policy was based on a national security mandate. And that was the desire to live free of suicide bombers and others whose main goal in life was to kill innocent people.

I just returned from Israel where I participated in the Saban Forum. The forum provides for a U.S.-Israel dialogue among people in and out of government whose mission it is to try to better understand the issues that are common to our two countries.

At the top of the list was the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and the effect that would have on the peace process.

Since the forum was conducted under the "Chatham House Rule," I am able to discuss what was said, but not who said it. That rule allows for a more open discussion since attribution can sometimes cause unexpected and unworthy problems.

One of the highlights of the trip was a tour of the Israeli fence that is designed to separate Israel from its neighbors on the West Bank and Gaza, as well as a trip to Ramallah where we met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. We learned two very important facts on that trip.

Since the pullout from the Gaza Strip by Israel, that area has become a virtual storehouse of every kind of missile and rocket capable of carrying a deadly warhead into Israel. The weapons of destruction have come into Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which opens the border between Gaza and Egypt.

You name an Arab country on the U.S. terror watch list and chances are good that men and materiel from those countries have poured into Gaza through the Rafah crossing ever since the Israelis pulled out and left the Palestinian Authority in charge.

Israel has a vital and uncompromising responsibility to keep those weapons, and the terrorists who will use them, out of Israel and the West Bank from which attacks can be launched. Hence the need for the fence and the restrictive travel placed over Gaza by Israel. Stopping 99 percent of suicide bombers and missile launches into Israel is not the standard to be met for ensuring the safety of Israeli citizens.

The other side of that same coin is the goodwill and real benefit on the ground that could and should come from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's courageous decision to leave the Gaza Strip. It will do no good to show the Palestinian people that Israel wants to live in peace when -- no matter how good the reason is -- the people of Gaza are not allowed to travel from one place to another.

Gaza is a tiny spit of land that should comfortably be home to a couple hundred thousand people. There are more than 1.2 million people, mostly unemployed and very poor, who need to move from Gaza to the West Bank and, yes, even to Israel for work, for commerce and for something as simple as visiting family members.

When it is Israel that is preventing them from living like humans, it is Israel who will be blamed no matter how just is its cause.

As participants of the Saban Forum, we heard both the problems and the pleas. We also heard the cries for help by the very people our government has empowered to act on our behalf in that part of the world, good and responsible Americans who are crying out for American leadership.

Those of us who were there heard those pleas and understood the necessity to act quickly lest both sides miss the opportunity to have an opportunity for peace. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to address the Forum last Monday night, it was clear that she heard that message, too. The room was half full of Americans who understood full well the import of the message from U.S. representatives in the region.

The other half of the room, whether it was Sharon or Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, various leaders of the intelligence and military commands and ordinary members of Israeli society also knew the stakes involved.

Everyone wanted to find an answer that could move the peace process forward while not subjecting innocent Israelis to further carnage.

It is now obvious that what started out as a visit to Israel by the secretary of state for an address to the Saban Forum turned quickly into what appears to be a successful bit of shuttle diplomacy. Rice seems to have found a way to bridge the gap of suspicion on the one hand and, frankly, suspicion on the other hand to allow for Palestinian movement through Rafah in a way that will allow Israel to protect itself.

That is a very important but also a very small step for men and women in the region. It can also be a step forward for mankind if Rice can make the case at the White House that full-on engagement of the United States in the peace process is essential right now.

Abbas and his fellow Palestinian Authority leaders went to great pains to express their sincerity of desire to reach a comprehensive peace with Israel. The Israeli leaders have been consistent on that issue and reaffirmed it during the forum.

This little bit of success over Rafah has proven that negotiations can happen and that the United States has the most important third-party role to play. That is what I learned at the Saban Forum this past week.

Actually, that is what most of us have known for a long time.

The question is what has Rice learned about her own ability to impact the peace process and is she willing to take every step needed to make it happen?

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