Historic agreement, but many challenges ahead

Q: Are the summit and agreement just a further sign of the incredible momentum to get the peace plan back on track since Arafat’s death?

Yes. First of all, what today’s agreement shows is that America and Israel were right when they said that Yasser Arafat was an obstacle to peace.

Abbas has only been president for a month, and already they’ve achieved this breakthrough. That shows that the passing of Arafat was critical to moving the process forward.

Abbas for years has been against violence, saying that it’s bad for the Palestinian cause. So, since he was elected president, he has very quickly implemented his own plan, which is to stop the violence and resume peace talks. But, again, the challenge is whether or not the agreements that were made today will stick. 

INTERACTIVE Searching for peace The issues and obstacles in the Middle East peace process

Q: How significant is U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s invitation to both Abbas and Sharon to the White House in the coming months?

It is very important. Clearly, it’s a pat on the back in one sense, because you don’t just go to the White House for tea and cake. You come away with lots of money and commitments from the Americans to help the process.

And of course, each side wants the same commitment. The Palestinians want the American commitment to pressure Israel. And Israelis wants the American commitment to pressure the Palestinians.

The Palestinian complaint was always that the Americans were no longer an honest broker, that Bush favored the Israelis. That was under Arafat. But now, under Abbas, the Israelis are noticing that actually, the American administration is warming up considerably to the Palestinians, and they are worried about that.

The invitations to Washington reflect Bush’s commitment to seeing this peace process through. That was also reflected by Condoleezza Rice’s visit here a couple days ago in which she said that both sides have to make tough decisions in order to implement the road map to peace.

This all reflects a renewed American commitment to making a Palestinian and Israeli peace come true.

Again, whether it works or not depends really on the militants on both sides.

The other thing to throw into the equation is that it’s not only a matter of the militants in Israel and Palestine, but also the question of Hezbollah in south Lebanon, which is backed by Syria and Iran and who have committed themselves to destroying any agreement that’s reached through violence. So, that’s another challenge that the Palestinians and Israelis have to face — pressure from outside.

Finally, there is one thing that I thought was very significant in Sharon’s speech. Sharon said, “We in Israel have had to painfully wake up from our dreams.” That’s very significant.

Then he went on to say, “You, too, have to abandon an unrealistic dream” to the Palestinians.

And that really is the essence of the whole story — that each side has to give up its dreams,  the myths — and grapple with reality if they want to achieve peace. 

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