Stop the Band-Aid Treatment
We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East Peace

By Jimmy Carter
Tuesday, August 1, 2006

The Middle East is a tinderbox, with some key players on all sides
waiting for every opportunity to destroy their enemies with bullets,
bombs and missiles. One of the special vulnerabilities of Israel, and
a repetitive cause of violence, is the holding of prisoners. Militant
Palestinians and Lebanese know that a captured Israeli soldier or
civilian is either a cause of conflict or a valuable bargaining chip
for prisoner exchange. This assumption is based on a number of such
trades, including 1,150 Arabs, mostly Palestinians, for three Israeli
soldiers in 1985; 123 Lebanese for the remains of two Israeli soldiers
in 1996; and 433 Palestinians and others for an Israeli businessman
and the bodies of three soldiers in 2004.

This stratagem precipitated the renewed violence that erupted in June
when Palestinians dug a tunnel under the barrier that surrounds Gaza
and assaulted some Israeli soldiers, killing two and capturing one.
They offered to exchange the soldier for the release of 95 women and
313 children who are among almost 10,000 Arabs in Israeli prisons, but
this time Israel rejected a swap and attacked Gaza in an attempt to
free the soldier and stop rocket fire into Israel. The resulting
destruction brought reconciliation between warring Palestinian
factions and support for them throughout the Arab world.

Hezbollah militants then killed three Israeli soldiers and captured
two others, and insisted on Israel's withdrawal from disputed
territory and an exchange for some of the several thousand
incarcerated Lebanese. With American backing, Israeli bombs and
missiles rained down on Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets from Syria and Iran
struck northern Israel.

It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against
attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to
punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they
will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response.
The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has
been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and
the United States has intensified.

Israel belatedly announced, but did not carry out, a two-day cessation
in bombing Lebanon, responding to the global condemnation of an air
attack on the Lebanese village of Qana, where 57 civilians were killed
this past weekend and where 106 died from the same cause 10 years ago.
As before there were expressions of "deep regret," a promise of
"immediate investigation" and the explanation that dropped leaflets
had warned families in the region to leave their homes. The urgent
need in Lebanon is that Israeli attacks stop, the nation's regular
military forces control the southern region, Hezbollah cease as a
separate fighting force, and future attacks against Israel be
prevented. Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory,
including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners. Yet
yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected a cease-fire.

These are ambitious hopes, but even if the U.N. Security Council
adopts and implements a resolution that would lead to such an eventual
solution, it will provide just another band-aid and temporary relief.
Tragically, the current conflict is part of the inevitably repetitive
cycle of violence that results from the absence of a comprehensive
settlement in the Middle East, exacerbated by the almost unprecedented
six-year absence of any real effort to achieve such a goal.

Leaders on both sides ignore strong majorities that crave peace,
allowing extremist-led violence to preempt all opportunities for
building a political consensus. Traumatized Israelis cling to the
false hope that their lives will be made safer by incremental
unilateral withdrawals from occupied areas, while Palestinians see
their remnant territories reduced to little more than human dumping
grounds surrounded by a provocative "security barrier" that
embarrasses Israel's friends and that fails to bring safety or
stability.

The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well
known. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any
peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key
U.N. resolutions, official American policy and the international "road
map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the
Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications,
Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all
previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government
leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal.

A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that
dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for
subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S.
assertions. Direct engagement with the Palestine Liberation
Organization or the Palestinian Authority and the government in
Damascus will be necessary if secure negotiated settlements are to be
achieved. Failure to address the issues and leaders involved risks the
creation of an arc of even greater instability running from Jerusalem
through Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran.

The people of the Middle East deserve peace and justice, and we in the
international community owe them our strong leadership and support.

Former president Carter is the founder of the nonprofit Carter Center
in Atlanta.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company