Editorial
Give virtual peace a chance

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An alternative peace plan making the rounds of the Middle East is opposed by most everyone with the notable exception of the Israeli and Palestinian people.

After decades of failed efforts to craft peace from the top down, the momentum might have to come from the bottom up.

Maybe the plan finds solid support in public opinion polls because it takes on the difficult issues always deferred in other proposals: borders and settlements, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

Airily dismissed as words on paper, or bitterly denounced by leaders on both sides as treason, a betrayal and a plot, the Geneva Plan is the product of informed but informal conversation between veteran negotiators. In recent days, Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, a former Palestinian information minister, have met with Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Powell and Annan offer kind, if noncommittal, words of encouragement.

Beilin and Rabbo know the territory from earlier peace talks that ended in frustration. This time they and others decided to keep talking, with Switzerland as host.

A future Palestinian state would reside within 1967 borders before the Arab-Israeli war. Several large settlements would be added to Israel. In return, Palestinians would have a contiguous piece of land on the West Bank and Gaza. A corridor under Israeli control would link the areas.

Palestinians would concede the right of return for four million refugees. They could resettle in Palestine, stay where they are or move to a third country. Exiled Palestinians would be compensated for lost land and lose refugee status.

Jerusalem would be divided roughly along Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods. Religious sites would be turned over to both parties under international supervision.

This virtual peace plan is not embraced by anyone except ordinary citizens who live daily with the failure of other real efforts. They see the promise.

A Palestinian peace offer failed over the weekend for lack of a cease-fire commitment by radical elements. The so-called "road map" peace plan, sponsored by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, has been dormant since last summer.

Comedians and other critics mock the Geneva Plan because of its vaporous quality, but it says out loud what must happen, and explains how it might occur. The power of the plan is to give voice to public opinion on elements never acknowledged by other "real" peace plans.

Outside brokers have not been rudely dismissive because they know this could be the eventual shape of real peace.

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