Jonathan Freedland (Guardian Unltd): Seize the moment

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday November 5

Seize the moment
Public hunger for peace could force Sharon and Arafat to give the Geneva accord the chance it deserves
By Jonathan Freedland

It would be a macabre exercise, but if anyone were ever to compile a league table of political assassins, ranked solely by success in achieving their goals, there is no doubt who would come out on top. It would surely be Yigal Amir, the Jewish extremist who murdered Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin eight years ago yesterday.
Amir's aim was to stop the Oslo peace process that was then two years old. He succeeded spectacularly. Without Rabin to drive it forward, Oslo sputtered and died. Distrust led to failure and to an intifada which rages to this day. Today Ariel Sharon sits in the premier's office and George Bush's "road map" is turning to dust. Israelis and Palestinians continue to die while Amir lives in his prison cell, chuckling with satisfaction.
Yet there are suddenly some stirrings in the undergrowth, signs that the years of paralysis could be coming to an end. On Saturday night 100,000 Israelis converged on Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to remember the slain warrior-turned-peacemaker - the greatest show of strength by the left since Sharon's election in early 2001.
Earlier there was a boost from an unexpected quarter. The army chief of staff broke ranks and admitted that Sharon's iron-fist treatment of the Palestinians was "increasing hatred for Israel and strengthening the terror organisations". There could only be a political, not a military, way out.
Still, the biggest boost to the doves has come through an unorthodox attempt at conflict resolution. Rather than wait for the two leaderships, a team of freelance negotiators - Israeli opposition politicians and Palestinian ex-ministers still close to Yasser Arafat - has spent the last two years thrashing out a full and final peace agreement between their two peoples. Last month they made the breakthrough. With the backing of the Swiss government they now have a text, running to some 10,000 words: the Geneva accord.

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