The Palestinian Vision of Peace
By YASIR ARAFAT

For the past 16 months, Israelis and Palestinians have been locked in a catastrophic cycle of violence, a cycle which only promises more bloodshed and fear. The cycle has led many to conclude that peace is impossible, a myth borne out of ignorance of the Palestinian position. Now is the time for the Palestinians to state clearly, and for the world to hear clearly, the Palestinian vision.

But first, let me be very clear. I condemn the attacks carried out by terrorist groups against Israeli civilians. These groups do not represent the Palestinian people or their legitimate aspirations for freedom. They are terrorist organizations, and I am determined to put an end to their activities.

The Palestinian vision of peace is an independent and viable Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, living as an equal neighbor alongside Israel with peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. In 1988, the Palestine National Council adopted a historic resolution calling for the implementation of applicable United Nations resolutions, particularly, Resolutions 242 and 338. The Palestinians recognized Israel's right to exist on 78 percent of historical Palestine with the understanding that we would be allowed to live in freedom on the remaining 22 percent, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Our commitment to that two-state solution remains unchanged, but unfortunately, also remains unreciprocated.

We seek true independence and full sovereignty: the right to control our own airspace, water resources and borders; to develop our own economy, to have normal commercial relations with our neighbors, and to travel freely. In short, we seek only what the free world now enjoys and only what Israel insists on for itself: the right to control our own destiny and to take our place among free nations.
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Waiting for the peace marchers

According to a well-placed military source, just before Tanzim commander Raed Karmi was killed, Yasser Arafat was closer than ever to a decision to order the armed intifada to switch to nonviolent civil disobedience. The terrorist attacks and the shootings that followed Karmi's "work accident," as Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer referred to his assassination, postponed the change - but didn't cancel it. At the Palestinian Authority offices in Ramallah, officials are studying the way South African blacks challenged apartheid. Arafat has lately been speaking of a march on Jerusalem. The flood of articles written by Palestinian leaders for the Israeli and American press are an indication of the desire to turn the swords into plowshares.

Israel's security services have also heard about the attempt to organize nonviolent demonstrations. At various levels of the army, they are trying to figure out how to cope with a scenario in which thousands of unarmed Palestinians march from Ramallah, Jericho and Bethlehem, toward the army checkpoints with which the IDF has surrounded Jerusalem.

One question bothering the field commanders, for example, is what should a platoon commander do if his soldiers are faced with hundreds of women and Palestinian school children carrying only peace placards, walking toward the settlement of Psagot? What if dozens of marches leave at the same time from all over the West Bank, heading toward the settlements that surround them? The answers coming up in the internal discussions are that tanks and helicopters are useless against demonstrators armed with peace posters.
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For the first time, a supreme commander

"More than anything else, this war is characterized by Israel's heavy response. Killing every Arab with a 500-kilo hammer is way out of proportion," says reserve major general Avraham Tamir. "Our reactions, like those of the Americans in Vietnam and the Soviets in Afghanistan, cause a lot more casualties and create a lot more hostility and hatred. Sharon can adopt a scorched earth policy, destroy the Palestinian infrastructure, and exile the entire Palestinian leadership, but as long as the hostility remains, he won't defeat terror."

Tamir, 78, says that he knows Sharon better than almost anyone else. An emergency appointment sent him to Sharon's headquarters as assistant operations officer when Sharon commanded the army that crossed the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War. During the Lebanon war, Tamir was head of the National Security Unit and served as Sharon's strategic advisor.
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ARAFAT, SHARON WALK OFF SET OF "ISRAEL"
Temperamental Stars Say Their Characters Written As Loathsome Creeps

Sources on the set of "Israel" say the show's irascible stars, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, walked off the set of history's longest-running drama today, complaining the show's scriptwriters continually make their characters look stupid.

"I'm supposed to be the Prime Minister of a country that's embroiled in this terrible conflict, where diplomacy and tact and wisdom should be important, but you people always have me behaving like an inflammatory idiot!" Sharon reportedly shouted before throwing his script on the ground and storming off to his trailer.

"I swear, if you hacks have me bulldozing one more Palestinian village, or making one more asinine, provocative comment, I'm filing a complaint with Actors Equity," he added.

Arafat was allegedly no less piqued at the way recent treatments have depicted the gruff, unlovable Palestinian chief he portrays.
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