I never had any hopes for the “Geneva Accord” between Yossi Beilin on the Israeli side and Yasser Abed Rabbo on the Palestinian side. Beilin has been in denial since the breakdown of the Oslo process, determined to make a molehill out of a mountain and to proceed as if nothing terribly important happened in the latter half of 2000. Rabbo obviously was operating at the end of a string held by Yasser Arafat, who played his usual game of yes-but-no.
Israeli participants in the Geneva ceremony– including author and peace activist Amos Oz– are already expressing their “disappointment” at what happened there. I suspect their true feelings are a good deal stronger than disappointment.
And the major “achievement” of the agreement– dropping of the Palestinian demand for unlimited right of return to pre-1967 Israel– turns out not to have been achieved at all as far as one Palestinian is concerned.
A member of the Palestinian delegation published an editorial that said, “Nowhere in this document have we given up on the right of return, and anyone who believes we have has fallen into the Israeli trap.”
