Peace Treaty

Signs of movement toward renewed cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have Israeli officials on edge. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization committed to its destruction and has shunned negotiations. In the wake of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts last fall to sidestep negotiations with Israel and seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state, it is easy to see this as another ominous sign for the prospects for peace. But there is another possibility at work.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid Jimmy Carter Simon & Schuster / 264 pages / $27 As a former president, Jimmy Carter has intervened in some of the world's most troubled hot spots, trying to reduce tensions in North Korea, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Haiti, Africa and Central America. But now he is staging a literary intervention with the publication of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a book that strongly criticizes Israel and the United States for blocking serious peace initiatives and exacerbating terrorism in the Middle East.

In the 40 years since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war there has been a seemingly never-ending string of peace proposals, mandates and meetings, with few successes and many failures. UN Resolution 242: On Nov. 22, 1967 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242, calling for the "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict," and "respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."

President Barack Obama is reported to have said to his advisors last week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would never make the concessions necessary for a peace accord. Well, we in the peace movement say, "duhhh. " If the president really understands this, it is time for him to go over the heads of the leadership in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and directly to the Israeli and Palestinian people, with a full-blown peace accord that would show what the U.S. could enthusiastically support.

LUSAKA, Zambia -- After 19 years of civil war and 12 months of intense negotiations to stop it, the Angolan government yesterday signed a long-awaited peace agreement with the country's UNITA rebels.But even as the two sides agreed to peace, warfare continued in their embattled homeland.If the agreement holds, it would end one of Africa's longest and bloodiest conflicts, a war that killed more than a half-million people and made refugees of two million more, a fight that began when Gerald Ford sat in the White House and Leonid Brezhnev occupied the Kremlin.

DEAR CAL -- Our son is an 18-year-old senior in high school. He's had a tough life. Both of his biological parents are dead, but since coming to us as a foster child when he was 16, he has completely turned around his life. Sports, particularly football, have played a significant role in his transformation. His football team is having a losing season, and the offensive coordinator's coaching style appears to be one of criticism, belittling and intimidation. At a recent practice, our son and the coach had a verbal altercation and our son cursed the coach.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- Negotiating teams from Syria and Israel got down to the nitty-gritty of trying to manufacture peace yesterday, hoping to find solutions to the vexing problems of territory, borders and security. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa, who rekindled contact between their countries in a two-day Washington meeting in December, remained in this picturesque old town. But much of the work was being done by their lieutenants gathered in hotel conference rooms.

WASHINGTON -- The ouster of Kremlin national security chief Alexander I. Lebed offers a harsh reminder that the global security system once held in place by the U.S.-Soviet nuclear rivalry is still in disarray seven years after the end of the Cold War.The immediate upshot of the firing is new uncertainty over how long peace in Chechnya will last, since Lebed arranged the controversial settlement. New fighting could further weaken the leadership of ailing President Boris N. Yeltsin, according to U.S. officials and analysts.

Jan. 14 1784 The United States ratified a peace treaty with England, ending the Revolutionary War. 1970 Diana Ross and the Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

Alfred L. "Roy" Atherton Jr., 80, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and a longtime expert on the Middle East, died Wednesday in Washington of complications from cancer surgery. In a 38-year career, he specialized in the Middle East and headed the Near East bureau for four years. He assisted President Jimmy Carter in the 1978 Camp David negotiations that produced a peace treaty the following year between Israel and Egypt. He was ambassador to Egypt from 1979 to 1983 and helped complete the transformation of the pivotal Arab country from maintaining strong ties with the Soviet Union to a virtual alliance with the United States.