The race to beat the peace has resulted in a proliferation of new settlements on the Israeli side, and perpetuation of the refugee issue on the Palestinian side. It has multiplied Israeli incursions and Palestinian acts of terror. These policies are pursued regardless of the true interests of the parties, simply to gain an advantage or hold a bargaining chip or enhance the political clout of a particular faction in Palestinian or Israeli society.

Realistically, it is now evident that in any case there will not be real peace in the near future if present policies are continued. Rather than striving first for paper agreements, it may be better to first create "facts on the ground" that are propitious for peace. The peace will follow naturally once the objective conditions make it possible. Until the obstacles to peace are removed, it is hard to envision that any agreement will be kept, and it will take years to remove the obstacles that have been created by both sides.

Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan is an example of such a "fact on the ground." Whatever Sharon's intentions may be, there is no doubt that evacuation of settlements in Gaza is a giant step for peace that can help to create a new reality for Palestinians and Israelis. However, it is not the only step that is needed, and it is not the only step that can be taken without a negotiated settlement. If it will take several years to evacuate the 7000 settlers of Gaza, and cost a small fortune, how long will it take to evacuate 100,000 or so settlers from the West Bank, who will need to moved in almost any peace agreement we can imagine? How much will it cost? Can anyone think that while the settlers of Izhar and Hebron, for example, remain planted in the middle of Palestinian territory, there can really be peace? If so, hadn't we better get started on this problem right now?

Amelioration of the condition of the Palestinian refugees is an essential requirement for peace. To give an idea of the magnitude of this problem: there are about 2 million to 4 million refugees, depending who is counted and who is counting. Their natural rate of increase is above 4%. This means that if 100,000 refugees are resettled each year forever, there will still be exactly the same number of refugees or more. The refugees who live in camps such as those in Lebanon or Gaza often live in abject misery. They form a natural lobby that is opposed to peace on any terms except destruction of Israel through "right of return," and that is why they are maintained in these camps. The United Nations runs the UNRWA program which is expressly designed to ensure a lobby for destruction of a member state.

There is no legal reason for this enforced misery. The legal rights of a refugee are the same if he or she has a five room apartment, plumbing, schools and paved road, or if they live ten to a room with no plumbing, no schools, dirt roads poor sanitation and no running water. Yet, when the Jenin refugee camp was destroyed by Israel in operation Defensive Wall in 2002, all of the humanitarians busied themselves immediately with recreating the same miserable conditions that existed before operation Defensive Wall. In Rafah too, each poor dwelling that is destroyed will be replaced by a similar one in a refugee camp. Moreover, these dwellings and conditions, bad as they are, are luxurious compared to the conditions in Lebanese refugee camps. When Israel leaves the Gaza settlements, they will raze the buildings rather than allowing them to be used to settle refugees. What justifies this "humanitarian" policy that is so heartless? Spite? Convenience? It is certainly cheaper for the donor nations of the UN to provide miserable housing than to provide good housing, and certainly more convenient to make the refugees rot in Lebanon than to give them visas to live in the United States, Canada, EU countries or Australia. Until this problem is solved there cannot be peace, and it would take many years to solve the refugee problem, even if we started today. Amazingly, there are no initiatives at all for ameliorating the condition of the refugees or for solving the problem - not from the UN, not from the EU and not from the United States. It is not enough to say that Palestinians will not be able to return to Israel even if there is peace, though that is obviously true. It is not even enough to propose some hypothetical solution that will be implemented at the end of days. It is time to start creating "facts on the ground," to propose and implement retraining and resettlement programs that will be carried out now, before the Messiah comes and there is a just and lasting peace, and before the lion lies down with the lamb. These programs can create a different reality, giving hope to an embittered, desperate and radicalized population, and removing a tremendous recruiting grounds for terror organizations.

Today, thanks in part to the actions of the Palestinian Authority and in part to Israeli actions, Palestinian society is ruled mostly by criminals and religious fanatics. This was acknowledged by the mayor of Nablus and many others. It is unconceivable that this state of affairs is good for anyone. It is certainly not good for the Palestinian people, and it cannot be good for Israel either. Yet attempts at reform have been stalled or failed for lack of sincere effort, or because they are tied to peace agreements or to the personal ambitions of Yasser Arafat. The result is, that to spite the PLO, Israel will allow the rule of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. To spite Israel, the Palestinians will allow their society to be run by gangs of criminals rather than undertaking serious reform of security services and police. Surely, the Palestinians need to undertake these reforms for their own sake, rather than as rewards to President Bush or to Ariel Sharon, and the Israelis need to help them in any way possible, rather than refusing to cooperate because "we aren't talking to each other."

Likewise, improvement of economic conditions in the Palestinian territories has to start right now. The "Marshall Plan" for the Palestinians cannot wait until there is peace, because there won't be peace if Palestinians can find no work other than making Qassam rockets, and if the only big money coming into the Palestinian economy comes from countries who finance Jihad.

The US, which is spending about a $100 billion on the war on terror, should consider what might be the effects, for example, of spending just $1 billion a year on improving the Palestinian economy, ameliorating the condition of refugees and education for peace. The Palestinians, who have expended so much effort in blowing up Israelis, would be well advised to turn those efforts to building their own society, peace or no peace. The Israelis, who have spent so much effort, so much money and so many lives to perpetuate the occupation, have to begin to spend efforts to end it. If we want to create peace and a normal life, it is not enough to talk about it. We have to start doing something. The time for media events and treaty signing will come later, and the agreements will hold because they will represent reality.

Ami Isseroff

Rehovot, Israel