Le Temps interview with GI Chairman and co-architect Yasser Abed Rabbo

Le Temps (translated)
2.07.09

Five and a half years ago, with the support of the DFAE, the Geneva Initiative was born, a detailed plan to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two key men of this process, the former Israeli minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin, and the former Palestinian Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo were in Geneva on Tuesday, invited by the Swiss Forum of International Policy, to discuss the resumption of peace negotiations.

Time: Is this the last chance for a peace between Jews and Palestinians?
Yasser Abed Rabbo: Colonization grows each day. The Israelis change the geographical nature of the West Bank. They want to prevent the creation of a future Palestinian State. The new infrastructures divide the territory and connect the colonies between them. It will be increasingly difficult to separate Israel from the West Bank. Not to say that it will be impossible, from here to two years, to have a viable State. One cannot replace the occupation by apartheid. They annex our ground but always treat us like occupied people. It is much simpler to have two States. But today there is a chance important to seize. Publicly, this chance, it is Barack Obama. Obama is our saver. It is realistic and pragmatic. He is not a dreamer. He knows exactly what it is necessary to do, he knows the obstacles. He is our last chance.

Did you meet?
Yes, on several occasions. The last time was last month in the White House with Mahmoud Abbas (note, the president of the Palestinian Authority). He knows very well the conditions of the Middle East and the international context. He knows, in all their complexity, the bonds between the various crises of the world and their implications for the safety of the United States. This man has a very clear vision strategically of what must be made in the years come. He is not an ideologist dreamer. He is not either pragmatic surface. He is pragmatic with a vision.

What does he think of the Initiative of Geneva?
He is informed. Several key personalities of its administration know our initiative. George Mitchell (note, the American emissary for the Middle East) very often mentions it. We do not consider it as a new crowned book. It is a model which postulates that pragmatism can lead to a solution.

You however consider dangerous his speech of Cairo. Why?
Dangerous in a positive direction. There are sentences which change the course of the History like the “I am a Berliner” speech of Kennedy. Obama says that a Palestinian State is in the interest of the United States. It engages vis-à-vis millions of Moslems to find a solution. If he does not answer this promise, the consequences will be very dangerous for the United States and us. All the extremists of the area will be able to then say: it is a new failure and there is not another option but only to follow us. If Obama does not take this seriously until the end, he plays them, with our destiny. But I trust him.

Publicity, what do you think of the answer of Israeli the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who decided for two States?
Netanyahu spoke with the extreme right. It takes, again, their rhetoric with biblical arguments to justify the occupation. All the conditions which it poses with the creation of a Palestinian state do not have a direction. At the same time he wanted to render a service in Obama while speaking about two states. He did not understand that the world changed. Never in the past, the United States, Europe, the international community, and a majority of people in Israel had not been playing around with an idea: that of two States on the borders of 1967 with some modifications negotiated by mutual agreement. If it does not include/understand it, it will pay the price of them as ten years ago. I have confidence in the Israeli public opinion; it will not follow it in a new adventurism.

Which is the next stage?
Obama answered well. He takes into account what you know as a Palestinian demilitarized state like a first step. Let us advance. Stop colonization!

Does Washington have to accentuate its pressure against colonization?
Israel must be put under a coherent pressure with the assistance of the international community, including the EU, which has very strong bonds with Israel.

How do you ask Israel to take a step when the question of Hamas is still not settled?
They are prisoners of their ideology which stops them from the evolution of the world. History will wait for them. We recognize Hamas as one of the components of the Palestinian national movement. They must accept the solution of the two states. It is not a gesture with regard to Israel. It is a decision in the interest of the Palestinian people. We say to Hamas: join us, take part in the elections in six months.

Does it Change?
I fear that certain bonds with regional forces influence them. The dispute in Iran from this point of view is good news. It is a lesson for Hamas and Hezbollah. The fundamentalist slogans do not nourish people. People want progress, another life, to open their window on the world. The fundamentalist ones propose the regression. People express against that.