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Interview with Middle East Peace Negotiator Dennis Ross

(Mother Jones) Nonna Gorilovskaya - After Camp David, I felt that [Arafat] had really revealed that he was not interested or capable of doing an agreement that ended the conflict. What he is not prepared to do, in the end, is to truly live with a two-state solution....He doesn't want to be the one that goes down in Palestinian history as the one who precluded a one-state solution. I think what [Prime Minister Sharon] would say is that he doesn't believe it's possible to produce peace right now. Not only because there isn't a partner, but even when a partner emerges, it's going to take time because the two sides have to learn to live together in a way that they haven't at this point. As long as the Palestinians will do absolutely nothing to stop suicide bombers from going into Israel, the Israelis have a right to defend themselves. The author of the [security] barrier was Yitzhak Rabin. [Rabin's] position was, through Oslo, let's try to negotiate the partition. But if in the end it does not work out...we're going to have to build a barrier, and we're going to have to separate. I think the last three-plus years have made the situation so bad, have produced such deep animus on both sides, have produced such deep disbelief on the part of each side that the other one can be a partner, that the task of peace-making is far more difficult now than it was before. There should be a principle: wherever the Israelis evacuate or withdraw from territory, Palestinians should assume responsibility in that territory showing that they can govern themselves, showing that territory won't be a platform for attacks against Israel.
2004-11-05 00:00:00
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