WEST BANK: Israeli army reservist and a Palestinian security man speak of the difficulties they face on opposite sides of the conflict, but still hope for peace

Israeli army reservist and a Palestinian security man speak of the difficulties they face on opposite sides of the conflict, but still hope for peace. Israeli army reservist Haim Gottfried and Palestinian security officer Samir al-Shakhshir are committed to fighting for their people's security but both long for the day they can lay down their arms. Yet even as their leaders meet this week in Annapolis, Maryland, for a U.S.-led push to jump-start peace talks, neither man sees a quick fix to the 60-year old conflict. In December, Gottfried, 26, will take leave from his studies in Tel Aviv's university and report for an annual month of reserve army duty required from most Israeli men his age. He will likely be stationed at a roadblock in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Gottfried, who served for at least a year of his three-year mandatory army service in checkpoints and roadblocks that Israel operates across the West Bank, said it is a very difficult experience -- physically, mentally and morally. Israel says the road blocks, closures and a barrier it erects across the West Bank -- are all measures meant to keep Palestinian suicide bombers away from its cities. Palestinians consider them a collective punishments which burdens their lives with impossible restrictions on movement, in the land they want for a future state. For Gottfried, a month long reserve duty in a West Bank roadblock is simply a part of life in Israel. Checkpoints and army raids are not the problem but a symptom of the larger conflict, he said. They may not be the ideal solution, but they prevent further violence, he said. In the West Bank city of Nablus, a frequent flashpoint between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants, Shakhshir, 36, recently gave up years of guerrilla warfare against the Jewish state to join President Mahmoud Abbas's security force. Israel granted amnesty to Shakshir and more than 100 other militants from Abbas's secular Fatah faction in a gesture to bolster Abbas against rival Hamas Islamists who have seized Gaza. In return, Shakhshir swore off violence against Israel. For Shakhshir, joining the security forces doesn't mean the end of his struggle against Israeli occupation, but only a new, more ordinarily way of doing that. One of Israel's major sticking points in negotiations has been Abbas's inability to rein in militants. The Palestinians say Israeli raids and checkpoints undermine their efforts and that occupation of the West Bank deprives them of authority. But in Nablus, Shakhshir said if only Israeli soldiers leave the West Bank, it will allow his security force to act decisively against those who want to pursue the war in defiance of Abbas's orders. With frequent Israeli checkpoints and new security barriers dividing cities, he said it's like trying to work in a jail. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas hope the Annapolis conference will lead to formal talks on creating a Palestinian state. But Shakhshir and Gottfried doubt the two leaders will be able to bring an end to the decades of violence.

ITN Source | November 27, 2007

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