Speaking to a rapt crowd that filled Spaulding Auditorium, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called for an end to the Palestinian suicide bombings of recent months, placing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the center of what he dubbed the "world war on terrorism."
Although he condemned the ongoing violence, for the most part, Barak avoided discussing current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies. Instead he focused on past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and future prospects for peace.
Surrounded by a cadre of body guards, Barak advocated a global anti-terrorist drive that would target all terrorist groups and states indiscriminately, without dividing them into "good terrorists and bad terrorists." He predicted that this struggle represents "the world war of the 21st century."
"The choice is clear -- destroy world terrorism or be destroyed by it," Barak declared.
Focusing on the continuing turmoil in the Middle East, Barak emphasized that the Israeli government remains open to negotiations for an independent Palestine. For that to happen, Barak said, all violence must cease and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat must accept a settlement similar to the one he rejected at the July 2000 Camp David peace talks.
He said that at Camp David Arafat passed up an opportunity for an independent Palestine that would have included 90 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Arafat, who "was looking for a Palestinian state not alongside Israel, but instead of it," flat-out rejected the offer "even as a basis for negotiation," Barak said, adding that Arafat has since turned to terror tactics -- using suicide bombings as a "new diplomatic tool" and unleashing "a 19-month terror campaign."
"He looks like a terrorist, he walks like a terrorist, he quacks like a terrorist," Barak said jokingly. "We have come to the conclusion that maybe he is a terrorist. ... Our attempts to transform him -- everything from Oslo to the Peace Nobel Prize -- was not very successful, unfortunately," he added more seriously.
Barak asserted that the only way to achieve peace is to establish two separate states.
In a press conference at the Rockefeller Center earlier in the day, he briefly outlined his plan for a fence that would physically divide Israel and Palestine and require the evacuation of 20 percent of Israeli settlers from the West Bank.
In his speech later, Barak described Israel's particular vulnerability, saying that its situation differs from that of the United States. He called Israel "an outpost of Western democracy surrounded by seas of Arab-Muslim backwardness," and joked that he would love to have Canada as a neighbor.
Barak spoke of need to ensure Israel's security, even if it means refusing to relinquish the strategic gains made in the 1967 war. "We're not going to apologize for our survival," he said. "No other civilized country in the world would tolerate having its citizens exploded every day in the streets."
Nevertheless, he emphasized the need to fight "Palestinian terror, not the Palestinian people." He said that there is an excessive focus on Arafat as an individual, and that ultimately it is up to the Palestinians to choose their leader and decide if they truly want a Palestinian state.
Barak summarized conflicting Israeli and Palestinian views on the reasons for continuing violence. "Arafat says it is about 'occupation, occupation, occupation.' I'm telling you, it's about 'terror, terror, terror,'" he said.
Illustrating this rift, two groups of demonstrators gathered outside the Hopkins Center before Barak's speech.
A handful of students joined about 15 Upper Valley residents displaying a banner that read "Ending Violence = Ending Occupation."
The demonstrators said they did not organize the rally as a protest against Barak.
"We just wanted to take advantage of Barak's presence and the number of people who will be here to get our message across," graduate student Christopher van Ginhoven said.
Paloma Wu '03 said that to focus on the Palestinian suicide bombings of the past few months is "leaving out 90 percent of the narrative" since the Israeli occupation has lasted for more than 35 years.
Opposite the protesters stood half a dozen members of the Dartmouth Israel Public Awareness Committee, holding an Israeli flag. One member explained their presence.
"If the banner had read 'Ending Violence = Ending Terrorism' we would be over on that side with them," Mike Sevi '02 said.
By focusing on Israeli military occupation and settlement, Sevi said, the protesters were putting too much emphasis on Israel's role in the conflict, neglecting to acknowledge Palestinian responsibility.
