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href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073100923.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073100923.html</A></FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=1><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=5>Stop the Band-Aid Treatment<BR></FONT></STRONG><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East
Peace<BR></DIV></FONT>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Jimmy Carter<BR>Tuesday, August 1, 2006; A17 - Washington
Post<BR></FONT>
<P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>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.</P>
<P>The people of the Middle East deserve peace and justice, and we in the
international community owe them our strong leadership and support.</P>
<P><I>Former president Carter is the founder of the nonprofit Carter Center in
Atlanta.</I></P><!-- start the copyright for the articles -->
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