The road to peace in the Middle East has come to a critical junction; it is now a dichotomy between success and failure. Between war and peace. It all depends on the decision of one man, Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. If he accepts the latest US proposal for a final settlement, the conflict will come to an end and everybody will live happily ever after.

At least, this is how Israel and the US would like to see things.

In the real world, however, it is a completely different story. The US-proposed solutions to key final status issues are a narrow interpretation of reality, and a shortsighted attempt at peacemaking. They fail to guarantee the minimum requirements of a genuine and lasting peace.

US peace proposals split the would-be Palestinian state into three Bantustans in the West Bank, almost fully reject the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, guarantee Israel’s annexation of 80% of illegal Jewish settlements (on more than 6% of West Bank territory), and provide for Palestinian sovereignty over scattered neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

This is, blatantly, a deal that disregards the core of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and clearly dismisses the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.

Maybe, given the current difficulties facing the Palestinian people (since the start of the Intifada), Barak hopes to pressure Arafat into accepting a deal at any price.

Maybe Barak himself is pressured to secure any deal before next February’s elections, for the sake of re-election!

Maybe Clinton is so desperate to make it into the history books as the man who “saved” the Middle East, to the extent of compromising REAL peace for a mere document of temporary settlement.

For the 5 million Palestinian refugees, there is no magic in the recent US proposal; what happened to UN Resolution 194? As for the thousands of Palestinian families whose land was confiscated by Israel to build settlements, there is no magic either; what happened to UN Resolution 242 and the Fourth Geneva Convention? And for all Palestinians, the armistice line of June 4th 1967 determines the boundaries of east Jerusalem, the future capital of Palestine.

Maybe it is time for both the US and Israel to wake up and realize the necessity of JUSTICE in the road to peace.