SUPPOSE that back in 1980, while President Jimmy Carter was trying to end the Iranian hostage crisis, private citizen Ronald Reagan suddenly announced that, on his own initiative, he had negotiated an agreement that offered the mullahs major U.S. concessions?
Or what if, five years ago, just as President Bill Clinton was threatening military action against Saddam Hussein, Bob Dole – who’d lost the last election to Clinton – suddenly popped up in a foreign capital to sign an accord he’d negotiated with the Iraqi foreign minister that undercut Clinton’s efforts?
Carter, Clinton and their allies would have yelled “treason” – and justifiably so.
Which makes you wonder why both former presidents enthusiastically endorsed the so-called Geneva Initiative for the Middle East that was signed amid much hoopla Tuesday in a ceremony emceed by that renowned international diplomat, Richard Dreyfuss.
For over two centuries, America has had on its books the Logan Act, which expressly forbids private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. Even though no violator has ever been prosecuted, it’s an important reminder that foreign policy should be conducted by the nation’s elected leaders.
The “accord” unveiled in Geneva was the handiwork of a group of Israeli leftists, one of whom – Amram Mitzna – recently suffered the worst electoral defeat in the nation’s history. Like principal negotiator Yossi Beilin (whom the late Yitzhak Rabin used to deride as a “poodle”), he is a private citizen, with no authority to negotiate an agreement, let alone sign one.
Any fantasy that this is a “peace” agreement was dispelled by the signing ceremony itself, which was little more than an unremitting bash-Israel spectacle, featuring longtime Israeli foes. Only Israel was held to blame for the stalemate in negotiations.
And the agreement’s backers, say those who know better, blatantly lied about what it truly says. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak – no right-winger – charged that “this accord is rewarding terror. It will not save lives. It will lead to more deaths.” Despite claims otherwise, “the issue of the [Palestinian] right of return into Israel is not solved. . . . Contrary to what Jimmy Carter said tonight, there is no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Not even this simplest demand is met.”
Indeed, the Geneva document is more than a rehash of the failed Oslo Accords, of which Beilin was a chief architect. Under Oslo, difficult issues like Jerusalem were put off until the very end, in expectation that, having come so far, the two sides would have to reach agreement.
Geneva addresses the issues that Oslo left unresolved. But it instead refuses to seriously address a key issue on which even Oslo offered specifics: Terrorism.
Yes, it calls for an end to terror. But it neither defines terrorism – the Palestinians consider suicide bombings “legitimate resistance” – nor does it spell out how it should be ended. Most importantly, ending terrorism is not deemed a prerequisite for any final agreement.
This document, in other words, would obligate Israel to undertake far-reaching territorial concessions in return for non-recognition of its status as a Jewish state, an open-ended “right” of Arabs to resettle in Israel and no guarantee that terrorism will be halted.
The whole point of the Geneva document is to handcuff Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and undermine his government in a blatant attempt to reverse the last two elections, which Sharon won resoundingly. It’s no accident that those behind this scheme are those who were defeated at the polls.
The Israeli leftists and their allies have once again emboldened Arafat – who almost certainly will insist on Geneva’s Israeli concessions as the starting point for any future talks.
Forgotten will be Sharon’s insistence that an end to terrorism must precede substantive negotiations – and his reminder that Arafat has refused to fulfill his signed commitment to “undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere.”
Which is why it’s especially painful that Secretary of State Colin Powell has encouraged the Geneva efforts and plans to meet with its authors this week in what amounts to an official endorsement. If it is his intention to force Sharon’s hand, it is profoundly misguided.
If those delusional world leaders who applauded the Geneva circus really want to pressure Sharon, there’s a simple way to do so: Press Arafat to comply with his repeatedly signed commitment to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.
Once the Palestinians demonstrate unequivocally that they are serious about ending terrorism, Sharon will have little alternative but to offer further concessions. Indeed, he’s already made clear his willingness to do so. If Carter & Co. are so convinced that it’s just a bluff, why don’t they try calling him on it?