Both sides fault Geneva peace plan

For many Palestinians, the plan -- whose authors are to meet with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in Washington today -- is fatally flawed because it compromises on the question of whether people who fled or were driven out of Israel during the Jewish state's 1948 war of independence have a right to return to their former homes.

Many Israeli centrists and conservatives also oppose the refugee compromise and numerous other aspects of the proposal: its sponsorship by foreign governments; its yielding to the Palestinians of major population centers and strategic areas; and the fact that it was negotiated by a widely disliked liberal politician who lost the last election, working in concert with a close ally of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"This Geneva document doesn't meet the minimum needs of the Palestinian people, though there is international support," Taysir Naserallah, director of a cultural center in Balata refugee camp, said yesterday. "It is a continuation of Oslo" -- the peace agreement which preceded it. "It will die. Actually, it is born dead."

Yuval Steinitz, a member of the ruling Likud Party and chairman of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, said the Geneva effort would -- and should -- be scorned by the affected public despite the international enthusiasm.

The document does not provide for Israel's minimal security, does not ensure an end to the conflict, and does not resolve the refugee issue, Steinitz said, "and the use of European money to support the opposition in Israel is completely illegitimate. This would not be tolerated anywhere."

Paraphrasing a Biblical story of deception, Steinitz said: "The voice is the voice of Yossi Beilin," the leader of the Israelis at Geneva, "but the hands are the hands of Yasser Arafat."

Abdel Sattar Qassem, an independent member of the Palestinian Legislative Council known for his criticism of Arafat, agreed that the Palestinian leader is the major behind-the-scenes player in the Geneva negotiations. Qassem does not find the document acceptable.

Though the Palestinian negotiators portray themselves as independent, "they are all puppets in [Arafat's] hand," Qassem said. "They cannot do anything without his approval. He uses them to serve his interests. If it succeeds, he will be the author of its success. If it fails, they are the authors of the failure."

Naserallah and Qassem both said the Palestinian-Israeli dispute could not be resolved unless all refugees and their descendants are able to return to their families' pre-1948 residences. But because refugees and their descendants number 3.5 million, that would put an end to Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

On the matter of refugees, the Geneva plan says a number of Palestinians will be allowed to take up residence in the Jewish state "at the sovereign discretion of Israel."

Officials and activists said the involvement of Arafat and Beilin doomed the Geneva effort with the Israeli public. A veteran Israeli diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Beilin is deeply disliked and distrusted for his advocacy of the failed Oslo and Camp David peace efforts.

There is a widespread feeling among Israelis and Palestinians that some kind of change is needed, said Eliezer Sandberg, a member of the Israeli Cabinet and a leader of the centrist Shinui Party, but "as long as Arafat is alive, in the sense of being politically active, we are stuck . . .

"People say Israel moved to the right" politically with the reeruption of violence three years ago, Sandberg said, but "I think this is not true. The day a leader stands up on the Palestinian side who they can believe, Israelis will be willing to give quite a lot."

Poll results released Monday by Ha'aretz, Israel's leading liberal newspaper, showed 31 percent of respondents in favor of the Geneva initiative, nearly 38 percent against, and the remainder undecided or unaware of the plan.

About 25 percent of respondents predicted that whatever peace deal is finally reached would resemble the Geneva proposal, but 21.5 percent said it would not, and 31.7 percent said there will be no resolution. In Washington yesterday, President Bush spoke carefully about the Geneva negotiators' meetings with Powell and other US officials -- sessions which drew sharp criticism on Wednesday from Israeli deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert as complicating efforts to restart the administration's own plan, the so-called road map to Middle East peace.

"We appreciate people discussing peace," Bush said. "We just want to make sure people understand that the principles of peace are clear." Powell, in Brussels, stressed that the administration remains committed to the road map, which has also been endorsed by the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations.

Hanna Nasser, mayor of Bethlehem and an outspoken critic of armed struggle as an avenue to Palestinian independence, said, "I don't see any justification for . . . all these meetings, all these initiatives. They just divert people."

Sandberg also said the new initiatives "are not leading us in the right direction," but said "people are trying to create a new agenda. It is the right time to do that."

The Israeli diplomat said that is how many in the government read Powell's decision to meet with the Geneva drafters -- as an effort to prod Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel toward an initiative of his own.

Charles A. Radin can be reached at radin@globe.com.