[...]... the act Be they states, governments, prominent individuals, national movements, or transnational organizations, each has an ax to grind and an agenda to promote by proclaiming a stake in the outcome and a right to participate in its determination International peacemaking, and especially international peace conferences, represent political high drama; therefore even bit players will be anything but reticent... clear that physical, geographic, and demographic conditions (in contrast to the former Czechoslovakia or, conceivably, Cyprus) all but defy a neat territorial separation and ethnic disentanglement a “clean cut”—short of large-scale population transfer, as did indeed happen in the case of India-Pakistan and also Cyprus As of 1999 the inhabitants of historic Palestine are united for separation but deeply... negotiating parties Nor is there really any reverting to former positions such as assuring Palestinian rights by cutting a deal with Jordan as spokesman for the Palestinians or subsuming Palestinian representatives within an all-Arab delegation Hereafter, barring any total dissolution of the Oslo peace bonds, the focus of academic thought and of creative statesmanship narrows down to the one factor still... “soft” partition A unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence, with or without Israel’s consent? The 1996 Beilin-Abu Mazin draft accords? Possibly a modified “Allon plan,” or Binyamin (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s 1997 trial balloon of “autonomy plus, state minus”? Any one of Israel’s “Jordanian,” “Palestinian,” or hyphenated “Jordanian-Palestinian” options? Or perhaps one favors Shimon Peres’s captivating... the Palestinian national movement, where the question is more whether rather than where to compromise on land Second, across the bargaining table: in the spasmodic official bilateral negotiations between the two territorial claimants and hence would-be partitionists: Israel and the Palestinian National Authority The territorial compromise principle is now intimately part of the permanent status talks,... fringes of the Mediterranean Sea Barring an agreed formula for sharing the land by subdividing it, the remaining choices are illstarred Perpetual strife in an uncompromising winner-take-all situation is one Or, at the opposite extreme, Israelis and Palestinians mutually waiving nationalist aspirations in favor of extensive Arab-Jewish assimilation and integration that, in cultural and religious terms,... for a larger role and in seeking greater prominence on an increasingly crowded stage All the more imperative that we be clear about the cast of characters to mix metaphors, the scorecard Clarity, similarly, about each one’s designated role assignment, extending from passive observer through convenor, honest broker and intermediary to active facilitator and guarantor One aspect of this more careful and... conclusion: partition But one that still leaves two critical gaps Necessarily first, the psychological and political one Between awareness of the need for parting ways and parting with real estate and the readiness to actually undertake its negotiation and implementation Even if this gap can satisfactorily be filled in, Arab-Israeli peacemaking dare not ignore the other gap: between the theory and prescription... beyond making peace to peace building Not only levels of expectation have been transformed; the very nature and content of the discourse has as well Only a few short years ago we might still have been terribly impressed by the fact that Israeli and Palestinian interlocutors physically sit in the same room and actually talk to each other (or about each other to American and European go-betweens) After... wars necessarily end? Are we therefore about to give thanks in 1999 perhaps by the year 2000 or at the latest 2001 for a halt, at long last, to unrelenting strife in the Holy Land? But, if so, how high a price are each of us (Israelis, Palestinians, their 4 Introduction respective Jewish and Arab backers at a safer distance removed, an onlooking world audience) actually prepared to pay for a . 2000 Aharon Klieman All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klieman, Aaron S. Compromising Palestine : a guide to final status negotiations / Aharon Klieman. p book are a battery of exceptionally devoted research assistants: Avi Muallem, Barry Bristman, Nadav Morag, Hani Zubaida, and Eilon Yavetz. Similarly, I can boast that Professors Abra- ham Ben-Zvi,. class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt=""