Gershon Baskin feels that the current violence can end now, but it can also get out of control. It is not too late. It must end now and then the parties have to figure out how to get back to serious genuine negotiations for peace and security.
Gershon Baskin and Mohammad Abbas (Abu Mazen)
To the Palestinians I say there is no truth to what you believe the Israelis are planning to do on Al Aqsa. There is no Israeli plan to destroy the mosques or to allow Jewish prayer there. To the Israelis i say, the Palestinians do not want another intifada, they don’t want to destroy all that has been achieved.
To both sides i say – it can all collapse and degenerate into another round of horrendous violence. It is so easy for it to get out of control.
I have told several people – on the 4th night of the second intifada, I was in the office of Jabril Rajoub, then the commander of the Preventive security force in the West Bank. I was there with 2 Members of Knesset – Avshalom Vilan and Mossi Raz. For several hours we have PM Barak on one telephone and Yasser Arafat on the other. We were negotiating an end to the violence on that 4th night of the intifada. We failed and at midnight we left Ramallah without achieving our goal. The violence went out of control and thousands of people were killed. Everyone who was in that room that night says that we could have ended the intifada that night.
I feel the same way now as I felt that tragic night. This violence can end now, but it can also get out of control. It is not too late. It must end now and then the parties have to figure out how to get back to serious genuine negotiations for peace and security – for ending the occupation and creating a partnership for life of our two peoples.
