My Last Remarks:

Rights have a life of their own. The Palestinians, as the native people of their country, had the right to claim all historic Palestine as their own. However, in view of the international public opinion and of the overpowering strength of the Israeli military, there is and has been no prospect at all for satisfying that right.

What about the partition proclaimed by the United Nation? Alas, the initial right had shrunk into the partition decision, and has shrank again to become the right to a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 boundaries. We have seen the shrinkage occurring twice. What can prevent it from shrinking again?

Has there been missing opportunities? The fact is that the UN partition decision has betrayed the Palestinian people in three ways.

1) It was done in violation of the will of the native population.

2) It delivered a state to the Jewish Agency which was ready to govern, while it disregarded the fact that the native population had no agency prepared to govern, and urgently needed protection against predators such as Jordan and Israel.

3) Finally, it remained quiet when Jordan annexed part of Palestine and when Israel extended its boundaries within the territory assigned to the "to be" Palestinian state.

At the time, there was no missed opportunity. By no fault of their own the prospects for their rights had shrunk. Nothing the Palestinians could do would have prevented that shrinkage.

Since then, there were many lost opportunities due to a lack of vision and understanding. You can refer to the very old report to the PLO in my website. There, twenty years ago, I developed a strategy which is still valid but which, though it reached the PLO in Tunis, was not adopted. Today the people who dream of what is most rightful, are suggesting a one-state solution for all its citizens, arabs and Jews.

For the Palestinians, to struggle for a single state is the accomplishment of Sharon's dream. He can without difficulty reject that solution. He can do that in tune with the Israeli people. And while the Palestinians would ask for one state, the Sharonite will gain time to shrink once more the rights of the Palestinians.

It is time that we, Palestinians, realize that the real problem is not so much to obtain our rights, but to prevent the constant shrinking of our rights.

There was at one time a very brave slogan "Either free or dead". It was brave indeed, but stupid. If dead we will never be free. But freedom can be acquire either in block later or even piece by piece. As long as we will not recognize that NOW we cannot get a single-state, that NOW we cannot get the return of the refugees, we must concentrate on the maximum we can NOW get.

Neither Mahmoud Abbas's vision and plans, nor Sharon's plans will implement the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. They will keep miles away from the one-state solution. Besides, even the 2-states solution is no real solution if the Sharonites remain ruling the Israeli state. The Palestinian State would then be unable to prevent further Israeli aggressions and annexations.

Today, the best bet is to support the Geneva Agreement. It gives so much more than Palestinians can ever get through negotiations with Sharon. If we cling to the Geneva Agreement, we thus introduce a wedge between the Sharonites, who want expansion, and the Israelis who want to satisfy their subjective perception of their security needs. This is compatible with the Geneva Agreement. Therefore, in supporting the Geneva Agreement we increase the chances to have the Israeli people topple its Sharonite government.

We should loudly proclaim that we will accept nothing less than the Geneva accord. This would change the whole situation. That accord has a lot of credibility in Israel and in the international public opinion. We have to act now before we reach a situation in which our rights would have been shrunk again.

However, it is very difficult to return to the Geneva Accord. This requires skills the Palestinians and their friends must acquire. We must be able to make alliances with a lot of people which we were wrongly despising. Many of them are Zionists.

For the sake of creating a powerful demand for the Geneva agreement, we must accept to work hand in hand with the likes of Ouri Abneri and Rabbi Lehrner. We do not have to identify ourselves with them. But we must consider them as friends in the battle for the Geneva Agreement. Only thus can we isolate Sharon and his likes.

We must stop to draw similarities between Israelis and Nazis. This must be done not because they are not correct, but because they are counter- productive. Some of our potential allies for the Geneva Agreement may refuse to cooperate with us if we insist in drawing the parallel between Israelis and Nazism. It is enough to say that the Israeli policies are barbaric. This, our potential allies are ready to hear. We must stop to sound the drums of slogans inappropriate to the moment and concentrate on what is strategically useful.

I will repeat what I wrote before:

In particular, as long as there would be Israelsi ready to walk in Palestinian shoes, and Palestinians ready (as I did in "stumbling blocks") ready to walk in Israeli shoes, as long as there will be people understanding that demonizing helps only the enemy (the expansionists), as long as people do not lose faith in the good and decency in other people, I will remain alive in them.

Finally, the key of the satisfaction of the Palestinian aspirations reside in our ability to reverse the Israeli policy of increasing the distance between the two people. We Palestinians have contributed to the success of that Israeli policy. There is a policy to reverse that trend, to curtail that distance. Refer to "stumbling blocks."

The above is my political testament.