The Tribune’s April 8 editorial titled “The wrong way to vote for peace” was insightful and well-reasoned.
Putting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process up for an Israeli public vote at this advanced stage of the negotiations is tantamount to Israel reneging on the Oslo accords and is a clear violation of the 1993 peace accord that was signed by Israel and the PLO and co-signed by the United States and Russia on the White House grounds as the whole world looked on.
It may be unprecedented in the annals of history that a peace agreement, albeit in an incomplete form, is put up for public plebiscite after it has been signed, co-signed and its terms were being implemented.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who is credited with being the architect of the peace process, could wind up destroying that process as a result of the proposed referendum. If that were to be the outcome, it would certainly lend more credence to extremism on both sides and would hand the enemies of peace a victory they don’t deserve.
Israeli security concerns, in light of the recent suicide bombings, are not without merit, but the most effective way to put an end to such acts is through a genuine peace. Why not give peace the chance it deserves?
