Global Policy Forum

By Shimon Peres*

People who have made mistakes throughout their whole life call the Oslo peace accords, declared 10 years ago, an error. Those who advocated a "Great Israel," who opposed a Palestinian state (and changed their minds in the last year), are the very ones who created the greatest illusion in the annals of Zionism. Namely, that it is possible to maintain a Jewish and democratic state on all of the territory that lies between the River Jordan and the sea.

On this stretch of land live 5.5 million Jews and 4.5 million Palestinians. If a division of territory is not effected within a decade, the Arab minority will have become an Arab majority. Israel will no longer be a Jewish state - or will stop being a democratic state.

A Jewish state is not a religious notion, but a democratic one: the creation of one place in the world where the Jewish people are in the majority. Should the Jewish people lose their majority, they will turn into exiles in their own country. And the 100-year effort to build a Jewish and democratic state will have gone down the drain. And if an attempt will be made to rule, not by the strength of a majority, but by the strength of force, then we shall have betrayed the ethical values of the Jewish people.

It is only in the last year that the political right wing in Israel finally understood that if the territory is not divided, we shall be unable to reach peace and we will fail to accomplish our goal - that of a Jewish state with a democratic majority.

With Oslo, we applied the basic moral values of the Jewish people - not to rule over another people against their will. Build our relations with our neighbors on the basis of an agreed peace and mutual respect. Replace terror by negotiations.

We identified the Palestine Liberation Organization as a suitable negotiating partner (preferable to Hamas); note that the PLO agreed to the 1967 map, giving the Palestinians 24 percent of the West Bank, as opposed to the 1947 map that granted the Palestinians 55 percent of the territory.

The Oslo peace accords aroused global enthusiasm. And it garnered the support of the major part of the Jewish public and most of the Palestinian public. The agreement let to a drop in terrorist activities. The Israeli economy, and the Palestinian economy, started to bloom. In the aftermath of Oslo, we signed a peace treaty with Jordan, and the threat of a regional war faded almost totally.

What, then, went wrong? Basically, on our side, accelerated settlement activities. And on the Palestinian side, an unwillingness or inability to clamp down on the terrorist militias that, through their actions, derailed the peace agenda.

If those who encouraged the wave of settlements had understood a quarter of a century ago what they now know (that maintaining a Jewish Israel necessitates a Palestinian state), they would not have established hundreds of settlements that created a map difficult to integrate into peace.

And had Arafat implemented his commitment to put a stop to terror by outlawing the terrorist organizations and putting their leaders in prison, an independent Palestinian state would have been established long ago.

Nothing undermined the aspirations of the Palestinian people more than the terror attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. When they murdered Israeli women and children, they also killed the motivation and rhythm of a process that aimed at putting a stop to the ongoing conflict, granting the Palestinians their independence.

Nonetheless, a "road map" delineating a path to peace has been outlined. This map, endorsed by both sides, demonstrates that an agreement exists in principle regarding the character of a future solution. The obstacles to its realization are the errors of the past. Democracy allows for errors. But they need to be rectified.

Israel corrected a basic mistake when it recognized the need for the establishment of a neighboring Palestinian state. On their side, the Palestinians are required to stamp out terror, which threatens to destroy their own future, even as it is in the making.

I engaged in negotiations with both Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and also with Abu Ala (Ahmed Qurei). Neither is a Zionist. Both are ardent Palestinian patriots. Yet they identified peace as a Palestinian interest. And I saw how they acted on its behalf. Arafat, who signed on to the Oslo map (with little enthusiasm), headed the Palestinian revolution. Yet when he had to start operating by the rule of law rather than the law of violence, he failed the test.

A decade has gone by since we signed the Oslo Accords. No cause is forever lost, even if some lose their faith. Quite the contrary - 10 years after Oslo, we possess a map that makes peace possible on the basis of two states for two peoples.

The peace process is presently in crisis. Anyone with eyes knows that we must not succumb to it. Peace will prevail. It started in Oslo, and at the end of the day, it will prove to be the only option for all the peoples of the Middle East who choose life.

*The writer is the former foreign minister and prime minister of Israel. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for crafting the Oslo Accords. On Sept. 22, Peres will celebrate his 80th birthday. This comment was distributed by Global Viewpoint for Tribune Media Services International.

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