Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
Ephraim Sneh, member of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli parliament & former deputy minister of defense, Geneva Initiative conference: “The Annapolis Summit: Prospects and Risks,” November 21, 2007, translated by Middle East Bulletin:
“It has been seven years since Israelis and Palestinians spoke to each other. During those seven years 5,200 Israelis and Palestinians died. And thus I ask, when we are finally so close to embarking on a dialogue: What is the big risk in this? What is everybody so afraid of? There is no risk. Only opportunity. This opportunity is conditional. It is conditional upon ensuring that the Annapolis summit will not be a photo-op, not just ceremony, but that it will be substantial. And this will be determined by one thing alone: if the following day negotiations will begin on final status issues. In our reality, I do not doubt the value of a photo-op, or of ceremony, we have not had these for seven years. But the negotiations must begin immediately, because the solutions to the final status issues are written on the wall and every child knows them. If this is so, why should more people die? Why should we continue to live in the mire of this conflict? There is no reason. …
"What will make the difference between failure and success? The answer is political courage. In order to advance the final status negotiations, both sides need political courage.
"Why? Because the substance of any final agreement will require that each side sacrifice one national dream, one national touchstone.
"On the issue of borders … there is an understanding, but the two issues of the heart, these are two issues of great importance, both practical and emotional, that run very deep. But on these there will be compromise. Each side will compromise on one.
"I am speaking about Jerusalem and the refugees. For forty years Israelis were taught that a unified Jerusalem would remain Israel’s capital alone. For 60 years, the Palestinian leadership promised their refugees that they would be able to go back to their old homes. Neither one is true. And the courage is to go to both nations and tell them the unpalatable truth: one that is hard to digest, but which both sides already know."
