Reviving the search for Middle East peace
MIDDLE EAST peacemaking will be a hard sell this year. Against the backdrop of last summer's devastating war in Lebanon, continuing attacks on Israelis, repressive measures against Palestinians, unpopular Israeli and Palestinian leadership, the deepening catastrophe in Iraq, and the truculent behavior of Iran, peace in the Middle East seems far off.
But the popular demand for peace remains high. Polls show that Palestinians and Israelis support a two-state solution to the ongoing crisis and expect their leaders and the international community to do more to achieve it.
Earlier this month I attended a conference in Madrid marking the 15th anniversary of the 1991 meeting out of which grew a decade-long process that came tantalizingly close by the end of the presidency of Bill Clinton to achieving a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
Can the spirit of Madrid be revived? After all, it led to positive developments that remain in place today, such as the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the framework for talk instead of war. This month's Madrid conference was convened by civil society organizations, not governments, and it demonstrated that even in stormy times unofficial talks can help renew the search for peace.
Delegates were former ministers, diplomats, and parliamentarians from Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, the European Union, Russia, and the United States.
In some ways what was said was predictable. A Palestinian delegate railed against "the longest occupation in modern history." The Israelis condemned a Hamas government that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the state of Israel, and accused the Syrian government of supporting terrorism. The Syrians complained that the United States and Israel were misrepresenting their role in the region, and the Lebanese charged Syria and Israel with interfering in their country.
But score-settling comments such as these were outweighed by the consensus that had emerged by the end of the conference about the need for a framework for moving forward. Most delegates endorsed a two-state solution, security guarantees for Israel, and a negotiated settlement of borders and refugee issues within the parameters of the Clinton peace plan of 2000, the 2002 "roadmap" adopted by the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations, and a proposal advanced by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and endorsed last year by the 22-member Arab League.
It would be unrealistic to expect Israel to move forward within such a framework unless and until the United States takes a more active role in the peace process. The vague announcement last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that she will convene a Palestinian-Israeli conference in the near future is a welcome step in this direction, but much more is needed.
Last November the bipartisan Iraq Study Group cochaired by former secretary of state James Baker and former representative Lee Hamilton warned that "the United States will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless [it] deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict." In a message last week to the Madrid delegates, Baker pointedly noted that "this conference could not be more timely, offering . . . the possibility of moving toward conflict resolution." For his part, President Clinton told the delegates that "by being here together, despite your differences, you send a strong message that peace still can and must be achieved."
Last fall the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation convened a group of Palestinian and Israeli journalists for a three-day conference in Boston. After some initial hesitancy and a degree of hostility, the journalists began to discuss the challenges of reporting on the very conflict that defines their lives. They found common ground and shared similar experiences, exploring their roles in forming public opinion on each side of the conflict. In the end, they agreed under the auspices of the Kennedy Library Foundation to continue communicating across borders.
The delegates in Madrid this month did the same thing. It is now up to their governments, and ours, to revive the search for peace in the Middle East.
John Shattuck, CEO of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor in the Clinton administration and is the author of "Freedom on Fire." 
