Middle East nations discuss terms for peace

They have been fighting for more than 50 years.\nSince Israel gained independence in 1948, the Middle East has been a region of turmoil, each side hoping for peace.\n"It's a tough neighborhood," said Mark Regev, a counselor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. \nIsrael made peace with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 after years of war. To the north, in the lush Galilee bordered by Israel and Lebanon, fighting continues. \nIsrael also wars with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a political group acting "as a mobilizing leadership of the forces of the Palestinian Arab people to wage the battle of liberation, as a shield for the rights and aspirations of the people of Palestine and as a road to victory," said Ahmad Shukairy, in a 1964 proclamation at the PLO's formation.\nSince September, the conflict has caused more than 300 deaths.\n"Between (the Palestinians and Israel) --there are two intertwining states," said Ashraf Zeitoon, a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group dedicated to understanding and study of the Middle East conflict.\nToday, Middle East residents hope for peace while the rest of the world watches the peace process continue. Although Lebanon and Israel build fences on their borders and the PLO and Israel continue to fight for the same land, all agree peace is a possibility.\n"If the region is unstable, it affects the whole world," Zeitoon said. \nPeace in the Middle East has become a global concern, according to the institute, because of oil and the strategic positioning of the region.\n"Peace is the goal of any state; it is the basis of any nation's prosperity," said Bilal Kabalan, deputy chief of mission for the Embassy of Lebanon. "There is no eternal war in history."\nIsrael: Trading Land for Peace\nFor Israel, the path to peace has several roads. Regev said he is unsure with whom Israel will next pursue peace, especially because the elections today might change the agenda, which has favored peace negotiations with the PLO.\n"I don't know which track is most viable right now, whether it's giving another try at the PLO or trying the northern border, Lebanon and Syria," Regev said. "Can we bring some of the central players into the peace camp and can we contain them?"\nBut in negotiations for peace, Regev said he sees two parts to the peace process: land concessions and U.S. involvement.\nNow, the West Bank is under self-rule, according to agreements with the PLO. And more land deals are expected before a final peace can be reached.\nNegotiations with the PLO and Lebanon are slow, and Israel believes the pace is dependent on what the other side is bringing to the table.\n"There are things that have to come from the Arab side," Regev said. "If we have to make concessions we have to know there is a true and lasting peace."\nAs the major component of the peace process, land concession has created some arguments among Israelis. Regev said right-wing conservatives worry too much land will be relinquished and that eventually, there will be no land called Israel. \nHe said the conservatives see land concessions as a sign of weakness.\n"The same people will say they'll want a bit more and a bit more and it will never end," he said.\nWhile Regev said he does not agree with such sentiments, he wants a clear end in peace treaties.\n"We'd like to know that if we do sign an agreement we want to know that's it. No more asked of Israel," he said.\nLebanon: Drawing the Line\n"Peace, in our view," Kabalan said, "is synonymous with justice; it is the average Lebanese citizen's main aspiration and goal."\nBut for Lebanon and Israel, peace and its obstacles revolve around border conflicts. Israel and Lebanon have long disputed their border. The Galilee and Shebaa have been main sources of conflict since Israel's independence. Israel began occupying Shebaa, the southern region of Lebanon, 20 years ago. Since the occupation began, Israeli soldiers have been a common sight on farms and in towns along the southern border.\n"How, when and where -- no one can give a clear example (of peace)," Zeitoon said.\nBut Lebanon does not want them there. The Lebanese embassy sees Israel's plan -- what it calls "peace in exchange for security" -- as an impossible means to ending the conflict.\n"A partial victory was the end of a 20 year long occupation of South Lebanon," Kabalan said. "This victory will be complete by the Israeli withdrawal from the Shebaa farms area and other stretches of the still-occupied Lebanese territories."\nAlthough Israel and Lebanon have been working on a military pullout for peace, the process has been slow and deadly, resulting in both Israeli and Lebanese losses of life. And Lebanon finds itself in contention with Israel about Palestinian refugees.\nKabalan said the only way to end problems between Israel and Lebanon lies in "just and comprehensive peace."\n"Since we are not the aggressors, we cannot tell when and how peace can be achieved," he said. "Peace has to be just comprehensive and just in the sense that it should include all related parties, take into consideration their grievances and concerns and not just be concerned with meeting Israel's security requirements."\nPLO: Fighting for a homeland \n"Any taxi driver anywhere in the world is affected by the Middle East," said Hassan Rahman, the chief representative of the PLO in the United States.\nHe said, oil is the reason peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO are observed closely, because the Middle East supplies more than 60 percent of the world's oil. \nBut between the PLO and Israel, oil matters little. It's about land.\n"Peace depends on Israel. If Israel is willing to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to live in its own independent state, then the Palestinians are willing to recognize Israel," he said.\nHe said, the PLO would like Israel to follow the agreements made and withdraw its troops from the West Bank and Gaza, what Rahman called illegally occupied areas.\n"(Israel's occupation of these areas) is not a prescription for peace," he said.\nAccording to the PLO, Israel occupies 90 percent of the Israeli-Palestinian area compared to the Palestinians' 10 percent. They are asking for 22 percent.\n"We have accepted the partitioning of this land into two states," Rahman said.\nBut Rahman said he is optimistic that peace will happen.\n"If (Israel) wants peace, we would be more than happy to engage them in peace negotiations," Rahman said. "But if they continue to engage in military policy (of occupation), that would be a prescription for conflict."\nPeace: The present and future struggle\nFor Israel and its neighbors, there is no simple answer for peace. And none can agree on how to end fighting -- or whether to end it at all.\n"The future depends on the new generation that's growing up in the Middle East," Zeitoon said. "This is where the whole future of the region and the whole viability of the peace precess will be shown."\nBut the new generation means different things to those fighting now.\n"The young generation (in Lebanon) will surely regard fighting as a means to obtain justice," Kabalan said. \nThe Israeli embassy said its country and people hope the younger generation sees methods other than fighting as the means to an end.\nAlthough none of the players in the Middle East peace process could predict when peace would come, Regev said all must remain hopeful.\n"The dream of peace -- the historic requiem -- must always be with us"