Mideast Peace: A Brick At A Time

reprinted from The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 1, 1991
By Jay Rothman

Three building blocks are required to transform bitter enemies like the Israelis and Palestinians into allies: will, confidence and momentum. My recent trip to Israel showed me that a new will for peace has already taken root. Confidence in peace is being built, despite setbacks. And momentum toward peace is lacking, but not entirely.
The will-to-peace is the essential first step. It requires that enemies reframe their demonic images of each other and their adversarial relationships. They need not be friends, nor even like each other; instead they must find common cause.
At a recent meeting in Jerusalem about binational cooperation in the city, the normal posturing and point-scoring was largely replaced by listening and a deeper, richer discourse. One prominent Palestinian intellectual said to me: "More than at previous such meetings, I feel we are listening to each other here." There is no turning back from this new will-Israelis and Palestinians have accepted each other as enemies with whom they must "do business" despite radically different positions on final status issues, like Jerusalem.
The confidence in peace is based on a belief that it will bring more benefits than costs. Such confidence was fostered on the main stage in Washington and signed by the famous handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat. It was soon backed up by pledges of $3.5 billion from America, the European Community, Japan and other sources to help jump-start the deformed Palestinian economy and demonstrate that peace pays. Good beginnings, but the momentum soon faltered.
The handshake is now something of an arm wrestle. Many Israelis and Palestinians have grown nervous as violence continues and grows, and dead-lines are missed. Because they speak different languages, symbolically and literally, because they have killed each other's children, Israelis and Palestin-ians still wish the other would just go away and leave them alone. Any kind of emotional trust between them is premature.
Donors, too, have put their pledges temporarily on ice, in turn creating further angst on the ground. The donors fear that their money will lead to further corruption and graft in Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. Certainly there will be that; there is in all governments. But the professionals on the ground -the Israelis and Palestinians who will design, implement and oversee various development projects-will provide a mighty counter-balance.
Confrontation has been the mode of Israeli-Arab relations for a hundred years, but insecurity and underdevelopment are the only winners. For those seeking lasting security and development, cooperation may be the last hope.
But cooperation is as demanding as war. Inexperienced in its risks and rigors, many are losing faith in this new path. In Israel and the territories, despair is now common and the lack of momentum is eating away at the emerging confidence and to some extent, the new will for peace.
Such distress results partly from unrealistic expectations generated by the grand symbolism required to get the ship sailing in the first place. It is also partly due to short memories.
As enemies begin earnestly to pursue peace, their memories of war are perhaps mercifully short. But the memory of peacemaking, at least, is some-times a friend. It helps, for instance, to recall that after Egypt and Israel made "peace," they fought bitterly-with words-over a tiny plot of land called Taba for more than a decade. Israelis and Palestinians shook hands, publicly, less than four months ago.
Diplomats will posture, but all should know that a lot of their static is simply diplomatic brinkmanship with a bit f Middle Eastern bazaar bargaining thrown in for spice.
The common folk will fret at such blustering, for they are indeed vulnerable. Who then is left to generate momentum? The United States can continue to help, but ultimately, the real peacemakers must be those civil leaders and professionals on the ground-prepared and entrusted to build a lasting foundation for peace, brick by brick.
Away from the negotiation table and the streets, momentum is gradually-perhaps too gradually-being built behind the scenes as in the Oslo meetings preceding the historic Arafat-Rabin agreement. This momentum requires support, moral and financial, if it is to prevail.
In Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians are exploring ways to cooperate on economic development, through joint tourism programs, for example. In Taba, regional representatives recently met to discuss common environ-mental problems and possible cooperative solutions. Educators from both communities are exploring ways to reform their respective curricula to reflect a new attitude toward peace and coexistence. Israeli and Palestinian academics and policy makers are together studying conflict resolution. Artists are under-taking joint creations. Engineers are sharing drafting tables.
Such is the way that lasting peace must be built-brick by brick-measured by years, not months. Between Israelis and Palestinians the will is strong, and if supplemented by confidence and sustained by momentum, peace is probable.
For the first time in a decade of making such claims, I'm no longer called a dreamer.