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The Times Argus, January 28, 2003

Time to grow up

By James Brooks

Mr. Kronick (“It Takes Two”, Jan. 22) and I might correspond ‘til the cows come home without changing each others’ minds about the Middle East. “But we must keep on trying, mustn’t we?” - Elwood P. Dowd, “Harvey” Mr. Kronick follows the conventional line when he writes, “No country ever tried as hard as the United States to bring peace to warring parties by diplomacy as we did in the year 2000. Yet when we seemed close to an agreement, the leader of the Palestinians walked out and resumed the fighting.”

This myth of a “generous offer” rejected by Arafat at Camp David was propaganda by Clinton and Barak to blame Arafat for the failure of the private talks. Later, Le Monde Diplomatique, a respected French journal, acquired the West Bank maps that demarcated Barak’s “generous offer.” “All but 5 percent of the West Bank” was nothing of the kind. Most of the settlements were left intact, with all their roads. The land returned to Palestinians was a desiccated skeleton of the West Bank, three islets of Palestine and a scrap of Jerusalem locked inside an envelope of Israel, with almost no access to the Jordan River. Palestine without the Jordan?

The myth has never been debunked by the U.S. media. Did you think Clinton was going to tell the truth about this failure to negotiate in good faith, which seriously damaged prospects for peace? It was supposed to be his shining moment. Arafat chose to betray Slick Willie instead of his own people. So, open season on Arafat. Maps of Camp David can be found at the Web site of Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, www.vtjp.org.

There is an objective difference under law between the solutions Mr. Kronick and I propose. I advocate the enforcement of international law and dozens of standing U.N. resolutions. I agree with U.N. Secretary General Kofe Annan, who told the Israeli delegation, “You must end the occupation.”

Mr. Kronick’s solution, “a few hundred thousand of our military to overwhelm the Palestine Liberation Organization/Hamas/Islamic Jihad/Hezbollah/Iran/Syria/Iraq and force a permanent armistice,” is similar to the Bush administration’s ambitions, and would constitute a grave war crime. It is also a recipe for unutterable despair, and the destruction of America, if not the world.

It’s time for us to grow up and join the world, not conquer it.

James Brooks
Worcester, VT