In particular, the voices came from some of the patrons of a street café; so I sat myself down, ready to listen.

There was an elderly man, rather gentle, with a musician's fingers, who said to me: "Look what you leftists have done to Israel by making the Oslo agreements with Arafat six years ago. You gave him land for a promise. For a piece of paper. He committed himself to renouncing violence and to sorting out future differences through negotiations.

"But why should he renounce violence when violence always yields him a dividend?

"Each time there is a burst of Palestinian violence, the whole world puts pressure on Israel to make more concessions. You yourself advised Mr. Peres to travel all over the world to collect billions of dollars for the Palestinian Authority. With this money, they purchased the weapons and the bullets that they are now shooting at us."

An attractive woman of about 40 with a slight Russian accent intervened, saying: "Like yourself, I voted for Ehud Barak in the last election because I want peace. I still want peace, but next time I will vote for Mr. Netanyahu or Mr. Sharon. The history of recent years tells us that the Arabs have made an honourable agreement with the right-wing Mr. Begin, with the hard-line Mr. Shamir, and with the extremist Netanyahu, whereas doves such as Rabin, Peres and Barak -- all they get from the Arabs are the car bombs, the exploding buses and the lynchings."

There was a third voice, young, extremely polite, seemingly an Oriental Jew, who smiled at me and said: "Let's not waste our time. This conference in Egypt is totally useless. Arafat can no longer control the fundamentalist frenzy of violence, which he himself perpetrated; whereas Barak can no longer negotiate because the Israeli Jews have lost confidence in his peace policy. Arafat and Barak may not know it, but they are both finished."

I asked: "So what is going to happen?"

From the four corners of the coffee shop, people said: more fighting, more violence, more bloodshed.

One of them even added: "And you are also finished, Mr. Oz. We will never listen to you again if you advocate a compromise with the Palestinians."

I said: "And what after the further violence?"

Everybody said: "Finally, there will be an agreement."

"Between who?"

"Between Israel and the Palestinian state, of course."

I just nodded. I was going to pay for my coffee and go. But those people refused to let me pay for my coffee. They paid for me. They insisted.

Amos Oz is one of Israel's leading novelists and a founder of the Peace Now movement.

Copyright © 2000 Globe Interactive

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