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Book Review
The Process chronicles three years of secret
meetings in Oslo between two diverse people
The Process
By Uri Savir
Random House, New York, 1998
315 pp $27.95
By Hal Sacks
Book Review Editor
Your reviewer,
struggling to meet a
deadline, had hoped
the recent negotiations
in Washington would
have been concluded.
It would have made a
great lead-in to our
strong endorsement of
a very readable,
uncharacteristically
unself-serving chroni-
cle of three years of secret meet-
ings in Oslo between two peo-
ples who basically denied each
other the right to exist.
Uri Savir, Israel's chief nego -
tiator with the PLO from 1993 to
1996, and his Palestinian coun-
terpart, Abu Ala, spent some
35,000 hours in the effort to
bring understanding and prag-
matic achievement to a process
mired in the litany of past hatred,
past terrorism, past abuses of
human rights.
At this writing, the negotiat-
ing teams are at loggerheads,
each threatening to walk out, yet
today brings hope that by the
time this review is published
some progress will have been
made.
So it was at the time of the
Oslo negotiations, which took
place on a parallel track to what
was purported to be negotiations
taking place in Washington, but
what was in reality an extended
opportunity for puffery and bom-
bast.
The issues were clear. Israel
had had enough as an occupier.
The people were ready to get
their sons and daughters out of
the corrupting and thankless job
of policing Gaza, and
the Palestinians .real-
ized they could never
get their people out of
the circle of poverty
without true freedom
and an economic part-
nership with Israel. At
the same time, tow
"lions in winter," the
septuagenarian Rabin
Hal Sacks and Peres, after half a
century of opposition to teach
other, joined hands for one last
effort to create a legacy of peace.
Introduced to each other as
"Enemy Number One," Savir,
the dove who nevertheless
thought of his counterparts as
diabolic murderers, and Abu Ala
(Ahmed Qurei) had reached a
point of dialogue after years of
bitter conflict, bloodshed, hatred
and little experience with peace.
It took patience, faith, tenacity
and a sense of equality.
That these negotiations could
take place in secret over three
years, with participation, eventu-
ally, by a dramatis personae that
included Hassan Asfour (a
reformed Communist who had
spent time in a Syrian jail),
Maher al Kurd (an economic
advisor to Yasser Arafat) is
amazing. The initial Israeli team
included Ron Pundak and Yair
Hirschfeld. Terje Larsen, a social
Southeaern'Vrgmta Jewish News
scientist and his wife, Mona Juul,
a successful diplomat in her own
right, hosted and parented the
sometimes fractious group, leav-
ing ample space, but remaining
available to help overcome
seemingly insurmountable prob-
lems. In due course, Yoel Singer,
an attorney whose experience in
peace negotiations traced back to
Camp David, became a principal
in the negotiations, which, every
step of the way, led back to Tunis
and Arafat, to Jerusalem and
Rabin/Pares.
The extraordinary events that
followed, the secret meetings
between a disguised Peres and
Jordan's King Hussein, the
involvement of Dennis Ross and
the American side of the equa-
tion make for a fascinating and
in many ways brilliant book,
almost novelistic, certainly one
which is critical for those who
have a genuine interest in what is
really required for the peace
effort to succeed.
Israel is such a young country
still, and the intimacy we share
with its few "hall-of-famers" is
remarkable. Uri Savir is assured-
ly a "hall-of-famer," yet those of
us who sat on the floor of the
Israeli consulate, eating our deli
sandwiches while a young con-
sul-general briefed our "Cam-
paign workers mission to New
York" didn't realize we were in
the presence of a shaper of histo-
ry.
Impact of Stock Market Volatility
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
Octobet.u,Juuo l
Take a closer look
Let's examine how a balanced sale works. Suppose GeorgeShamus
owns stock worth $20,000. He invested $5,000 ten years ago. He
believes that the stock is unlikely to increase in value in future years
and he would like to sell it. He does not, however, wish to paj capital
gains tax of as much as $3,000, leaving him with net sale proceeds of
no more than $17,000.
Mr. Shamus is also interested in making a charitable gift of approxi-
mately $6,000 while enjoying the greatest tax savings in his 36% tax
bracket.
IF MR. SHAMUS
ONLY SELLS HIS STOCK:
FMV $20,000 (a)
BASIS < 5,000>
GAIN $15,0OO
TAX RATE 20%
TAX $ 3,OO0 (b)
NET
17.000
(a-b)
I
BALANCED SALE:
Gift • Sale
$6,000 $14,0OO (a)i
3,500
$10,500
36% 20%
$2,160 (c) $ 2,1OO (b)
Savings Cost
WASH +
$14000
(a-b+c
\\;
NET COST t
/
3.OO0
Here is how a balanced sale would help him accomplish both of his
objectives.
Let's examine the chart above.
Note that the $2,160 in tax savings from the gift more than offsetS
the $2,100 in capital gains tax due on the securities he sold. The tax
liability on the portion of the securities that are sold is thus "balanced"
by the tax benefit for the charitable gift portion.
Mr. Shamus is able to enjoy cash proceeds of $14,000 and the satis-
faction of making a $6,000 gift, a total of $20,000 in value to him,
while effectively bypassing a portion of the capital gains tax liability.
Had he sold all of the securities, he would have netted just $17,000
after paying $3,000 in taxes.
Converting gains to income
In today's environment, many donors may wish to use securities that
have increased in value in recent years to fund gift annuities, charitable
remainder trusts, and gifts that provide additional income for them-
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the future.
Communication is the key
While these strategies are obvious to thechantable gift planners at
the Tidewater Jewish Foundation, our goal is to communicate to our
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market uncertainty and show our donors the many positive alternatives
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about the most effective ways to give securities in today's economic
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call Beth Berk or Philip Rovner, at 671-1600.
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