Q-C reaction cautious on Middle East move

By Deirdre Cox Baker | Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Residents with loyalties on each side of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict showed caution Monday when learning about the olive branch extended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“When any side calls for peace, I call that an encouraging sign,” John Dabeet said.

“I see this as another attempt by the Israelis to bring about a path to peace,” Allan Ross said.

Dabeet, of Muscatine, Iowa, is founder and president of Americans and Palestinians for Peace. He believes major sticking points will center on the Palestinians’ “right to return” to their ancestral homeland and on what other concessions Israel is ready to grant its neighbors.

Ross, director of the Jewish Federation of the Quad-Cities in Rock Island, said the Palestinians have rejected most of Israel’s outreach efforts. One of the latest, to grant the area of Gaza back to the Palestinians, has resulted in militants moving cannons to Gaza and bombing Israeli residents.

“I think Olmert should try for peace, and Israelis should always try for peace, but in turn, what are the Palestinian concessions?” he said, citing the problems of Hamas as the ruling party of Palestine, with continuing acts of terrorism and with the fate of a kidnapped Israeli soldier.

Dabeet believes the only solution in the conflict is a political one. “Both sides have tried in many ways to bring peace,” he said. “But it may not happen when the Israelis say, ‘take it or leave it.’”