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David Horovitz: Creative Thinking

Proximity is power. At the White House, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is located in offices close to the president, and sees him routinely all the time. By contrast, her Israeli counterpart, Giora Eiland, a widely respected ex-general, is not based at the Prime Minister�s Office. He doesn�t even work in Jerusalem, but from a headquarters north of Tel Aviv.

Which is particularly unfortunate, given that Eiland is one of the few original and creative thinkers feeding advice and information to our generally obtuse and hamstrung government. Indeed, Eiland has a plan for nothing less than a comprehensive settlement with the Palestinians -- a plan some of whose details have surfaced occasionally and somewhat inaccurately in the Hebrew media, and one that does not appear to have resonated with the prime minister at all.

Eiland�s initiative also involves an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza -- as must any serious effort at resolving the conflict. But in striking counterpoint to Ariel Sharon�s disengagement conception, Eiland does not advocate a unilateral pullout, nor does he think of leaving Gaza as an isolated step. Rather, Eiland would have Israel wrench the 7,800 Gaza Jews from their homes and relinquish the territory only as the first stage of an internationally sponsored multi-stage negotiated program leading to a permanent accord. (Can anybody seriously argue that a unilateral pullout from Gaza will reduce the incentive for terrorism or boost the Palestinian leadership�s efforts to stop it, when surely the consequence will be intensified terrorist activity in and from the West Bank? And can anybody seriously advocate a unilateral Gaza pullout as a long-term interim solution, when 20 years from now there will be twice as many hostile Palestinians there? One can only speculate that Sharon ultimately still clings to the notion of Jordan-is-Palestine as his long-term panacea.)

Central to the success of Eiland�s initiative is the agreement and extensive involvement not only of the Palestinians but also of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the international community. Specifically, Egypt would be asked to magnanimously contribute to the resolution of the conflict by allocating a 20-kilometer by 30-kilometer (230 sq. miles) rectangle of sparsely populated Sinai territory on its side of the border to allow Gaza reasonable space to grow and flourish. Conjoined with today�s Strip, this enlarged Palestinian Gaza, boosted by overseas investment and support, would feature a major city, major airport and major seaport -- and come to serve as an attractive potential destination for Palestinian refugees who seek a return to the new homeland.

In return for its territorial generosity, Egypt would be compensated with a strip of land perhaps a third of the size from the Israeli western Negev, and its president would receive the adulation of a grateful world, Nobel Peace Prize, etc. Tunnels from Jordan under the Negev to that new strip of Egypt, and routes up through the Sinai to the new Palestinian Gaza seaport, could carry oil and other commodities to the world from Saudi Arabia and beyond -- with Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians all benefiting financially. Jordan would also gain from the fact that, with Gaza a newly attractive location, the dire threat of a Palestinian refugee influx to its territory would be much reduced.

Meanwhile, having pulled out of Gaza as a good-faith first step toward this negotiated solution, Israel could complete its West Bank security barrier along the route now being finalized by Eiland, leaving 11 to 12 percent of the territory and some 90 percent of the settlers on the Israeli side. And with Egypt and Jordan deeply invested in the new arrangement, they would have an unprecedented interest in ensuring its success. A true win-win solution.

A major handicap of Eiland�s plan lies in the very fact that it is Eiland�s plan. For it is crucial to its prospects that it be advocated not by Israel, but by just about anybody else. Certainly, were those would-be peacemakers, the international Quartet, to adopt Eiland�s idea -- and thus be able to paint a Gaza pullout as the much-desired initial move toward the wider deal -- the program would automatically become more palatable to the Arab world.

Our prime minister may have his own reasons for not paying too much attention to the thinking of his national security adviser. International mediators need not show similar indifference.