Are the informal Geneva Accords a basis for or a barrier to peace?
“The extent to which the Geneva accords may be slightly better for the Palestinians than what they were offered at Camp David and Taba—and they are in some important respects—raises the second problem. Resort to terrorism should never be rewarded by a better deal. If the Palestinians believe that Arafat’s tactic of terrorism rather than negotiation is what got them their better deal, then the hands of radical Islamic rejectionists would be strengthened by the Geneva plan. This probably explains why Ehud Barak, Israel’s dovish former prime minister who offered Arafat a similar deal, is so strongly against this one: ‘It is rewarding terror … It will not save lives. It will lead to more deaths.’ Every time the Palestinians want more—and they surely will—terrorist leaders will remind them of how they got more only after walking away from negotiation and restarting the terrorism. This will not only be bad for Israel, it will damage America’s war against terrorism. America cannot fight globa
