by Yossi Beilin, Yediot Aharonot, 29.08.05

The disengagement from Gaza paves the road to the greatest opportunity to advance towards a far more dramatic move -- a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on the 1967 borders, involving the annexation of Jewish settlements near the Green Line in exchange for territory inside Israel.
 
Many settlers have said that it would be much easier for them to leave their homes, if a peace agreement were the result.  A peace agreement (based on the Bush vision, the Clinton Plan and Geneva Initiative), passed in a national referendum, would require the evacuation of approximately on hundred thousand settlers from their homes.  This time, however, anyone so inclined will be able to move to the settlement blocs that will be transferred to Israeli sovereignty.  What's more, a not insignificant portion of the evacuated settlers are very interested in receiving compensation and leaving the settlements now- this will be feasible and possible.
 
It has been made clear that there is a Palestinian partner.  While problematic, difficult and weakened, this partner is interested in quiet and in reaching an agreement.  The next logical step is to sit down with Abu Mazen and attempt to reach a permanent status agreement with him.  But this step won't happen now.  The election race is underway, and all the political players will be absorbed by their own concerns: The Palestinians are preparing for elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in January, and the Likud and Labor Party will be holding their primaries in the fall.  There will be no substantive policy debate.  All the statements will be directed at internal audiences, and the world will not put pressure on any of the players- not on us and not on the Palestinians- to take action now.  An extended political stalemate sets the stage for terror organizations to renew their activity.  They will claim that the disengagement from Gaza was designed to ensure Israel's continued hold of the West Bank, and that the only way to remove Israel from the West Bank is to resume the use of violence.
 
In order to ensure that the period of political inaction is as short as possible, we need to move up the elections.  If the Israelis and Palestinians have the elections behind them in February, it will be possible to take political action and return to the negotiating table.
 
In these elections, the peace movement will have to present its real alternative- no more unilateral withdrawals, no interim arrangements that empower the extremists on both sides and enable them to sabotage a permanent status agreement, but rather negotiations toward peace and resolution of the conflict.  If these negotiations do not succeed, it will always be possible to withdraw unilaterally and take the large risks this entails.
 
Opposing this vision will be the right wing, which has divided into two camps: one that will talk about putting the current situation in "park" forever, fortifying holdings in the West Bank and to hell with Jewish ethics, demography and the world.  The second camp will propose small mini-disengagements, which will prevent a contiguous Palestinian state and endanger the security of Israel, without ensuring international recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, guaranteeing our eastern border and without resolving, once and for all, the refugee issue.
 
That is what the next elections will look like, along with issues regarding the future of Israel as a welfare state after the social destruction which the current government leaves in its wake; and the overdue separation between religion and state, particularly with respect to marriage and divorce.
 
The nation will be asked to decide, and the sooner the better.
 
- The author is the Charman of Yachad-Meretz