Not only did former Prime Minister Ehud Barak make a generous offer to the Palestinians at Camp David, he offered too much, said Dan Meridor.
As one of the Israeli negotiators, Meridor said “Israel made a really heroic attempt to try to bring a 53-year-old conflict to an end. Prime Minister Barak went all the way — some say more than all the way.”
Meridor, who is minister without portfolio in the Sharon government, spoke about how Sept. 11 changed the world, and how it has impacted the possibilities for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The former Likudnik, who now heads Israel’s Center Party, made his remarks at Congregation Emanu-El Dec. 12 in front of some 500 sympathetic listeners, on a day when at least 10 Israelis had died in a West Bank bus ambush.
Meridor ticked off the list of Barak’s concessions, saying that from his perspective, Barak offered too much. “He promised a shared Jerusalem, against my better judgment,” he said. “And it was rejected outright with no hesitation by Arafat. For two weeks, the offer was repeated, and the answer was always ‘no, no, no.'”
Arafat’s rejection of Barak’s offer has changed the political map of Israel, he said, with both the right and the left moving toward the center. Using himself as an example, Meridor said that the idea of a Palestinian state used to be anathema to the right wing; now, for the most part, they understand it is inevitable.
With lifelong dove Shimon Peres as Sharon’s foreign minister, Meridor said, “Now Israel stands together — a government where Sharon and Peres are both in it. It’s the only victory Arafat can claim.”
Meridor defended his government’s position not to talk to Arafat as long as attacks against Israelis continue, and furthermore, questioned why Israelis should trust the Palestinian leader at all, considering that Arafat agreed to stop the violence when he signed the Oslo accords in 1993.
“Is he willing or able to control the shooting?” he asked. “If he breached this one, why should we trust his signature on something else?”
Meridor said that 80 percent of Israelis continue to support making some kind of peace agreement, even under the present conditions, and even with sweeping concessions like the ones Barak made. “But we don’t know that we have a partner.”
One positive development though, he said, is that it is not only Israelis who are criticizing Arafat’s leadership, or lack thereof. Americans and even the Europeans have joined in, as have Arafat’s own constituents.
“Not just at a grassroots level but important people in the Palestinian leadership have spoken openly against him.”
As bad as the Israelis are suffering now, he said, the Palestinians are suffering more.
“We have no doubt we will win this war. Our secret weapon is ‘no choice.'”
Turning to Sept. 11, Meridor said Americans could learn from Israelis in not letting the threat of terrorism prevent them from living their lives.
“Since Zionism started 100 years ago, there has not been one year of no terrorist attacks. If we had stopped, there wouldn’t be an Israel today.”
While the United States has taken the helm in the world battle against terrorism, “America cannot do it alone,” said Meridor.
“Israel will cooperate on this in the coming months,” he said. “Russia and Europe will follow, but the leadership must come from here.”
Speaking of America’s war against Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida, Meridor said that on Sept. 11, “We saw how easy it was to for them to attack. We need to understand it is a different world and deal with it, because it threatens the new world order.”
If the United States can successfully rid Afghanistan of the Al Qaida network, other nations that harbor terrorists — like Iran, Syria and Lebanon to name a few — will learn from that example, he said.
As the recent attacks so amply demonstrated, “Terrorists don’t need to be close by [to their targets]; they just need a place to operate.”
In a question-and-answer period, one person asked how to defend Israel against criticism that the West Bank settlements are the primary obstruction to peace.
Admitting “the settlement issue is troubling for many people,” Meridor used the opportunity to rail against those who question it.
“Why is it that Arabs can live in Israel and Jews cannot live there?” he asked. “Why is it possible that Jews can live in San Francisco, Budapest or Johannesburg, but not in the heart of Israel? Is this something we should accept?”
His question was followed by loud applause.