Military

DATE=06/07/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE= MIDEAST / NEGOTIATING PEACE

NUMBER=5-51768

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: U-S President George Bush is stepping up his effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Those efforts have been undermined by more than a year of violence that has hardened attitudes on both sides. Experts in conflict resolution say the violence is hard to eliminate without offering something better to the Palestinians but even that is complicated by the threat of more violence. Correspondent Laurie Kassman takes a closer look at the issue.

TEXT: Professor John Darby of the University of Notre Dame says the biggest threat to any peace process is uncontrolled violence. But the expert in ethnic conflict says halting the violence temporarily is also risky.

/// DARBY ACT ///

If a cease-fire begins a peace process, the biggest threat to the peace process is that the cease-fire will end, the people in the negotiations will change their minds. There are always elements within the parties, within the militant groups either large or small who believe that to go into negotiations is to risk betrayal, or to be seen handing over to the enemy. So there is a kind of pendulum effect going on during negotiations, ranging from those who have to decide to go into talks to those who are very skeptical of the process. And the measure of where the pendulum swings is the answer to questions like what are we getting from this?

/// END ACT ///

In the case of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, former journalist John Wallach says both sides need an incentive to return to the negotiating table. Mr. Wallach now runs the Seeds of Peace exchange program that brings together Israeli and Palestinian youngsters.

For Israelis, he says, the incentive is security. For Palestinians, it is an end to Israeli occupation.

/// WALLACH ACT ///

What incentive did the United States and the Bush administration provide in its first year for (Yasser) Arafat to control the terrorists? Simply to say, as the Israeli government said, we won't negotiate until there is no terrorism was a slap in the face to many Palestinians who believed that they were on the road toward gaining independence, self determination, a capital and a contiguous state.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Wallach says a U-S peace plan that provides some tangible steps toward that goal could give Palestinian militants a reason to end their attacks against Israelis. He says recent surveys of Israelis and Palestinians show that both sides are exhausted by more than a year and a half of bloodshed.

But, ethnic conflict expert John Darby warns the window of opportunity can close as quickly as it opens unless both sides are committed to the peace process.

/// DARBY ACT ///

Fatigue is not enough. People can be fatigued for a long time. It doesn't necessarily translate into talks.

/// END ACT ///

Joseph Klaits of the Washington-based U-S Institute of Peace, who organized the recent discussion on conflict resolution, says advancing a peace process also has a lot to do with overcoming fear.

/// KLAITS ACT ///

Each party is so consumed by its own fear and hurt that it is blind to the fear and hurt of the other side. Each party typically sees itself as a righteous victim and views the enemy as guilty of immoral acts of violence.

/// END ACT ///

Notre Dame University Professor John Darby says civil society can help prepare the way for negotiations by putting pressure on their leaders to open a dialogue. hostility. But he acknowledges there are radical groups on both sides that will always try to sabotage any peace talks.

The challenge, he says, is to reduce their influence on the majority of Israelis and Palestinians who still favor peaceful coexistence. (Signed)

NEB/LMK/MAR