JERUSALEM — The desk clerk almost fainted when Ami Ayalon called the hotel's front desk to confirm his appointment.

It wasn't because Ayalon heads up the grass-roots People's Voice peace initiative. It's was because for 41/2 years, from 1995-1999, Ayalon was head of Shin Bet, the dreaded Israeli secret service.

He openly admits he's killed and tortured people. Friends tell me his favorite technique was to grab your upper jaw with one hand, your lower jaw with another, then pull hard. It breaks your face. Nice guy to be leading a peace initiative.

Ayalon is a pit bull of a man, short and muscular. In his 60s, the retired admiral looks as if he knocks out a hundred pushups before breakfast. His head is bald as a baby's bottom, his chin has an arrogant tilt, dark eyes throw sparks. Not a guy to mess with. And that's the point, he says.

His Palestinian counterpart, Sari Nusseibeh, is his opposite — Mutt to his Jeff. Tall, gentle and scholarly, he is the president of Al-Quds University. I met him in November when he visited San Antonio.

They're the odd couple of the peace movement, but don't call it that. Nowhere in their proposal is the word peace mentioned.

"You cannot sell peace to the Israelis," Ayalon claimed.

Their proposal is simple, pragmatic and controversial. Ayalon sees it more as a vision than a plan. The Geneva Initiative, proposed early last month, takes a similar approach, described in much greater detail.

Two states for two peoples. Permanent borders generally following 1967 lines. Removal of the settlers from Palestine. Jerusalem as an open city, capital of two states. No right of return: Palestinian refugees return only to Palestine, Jews only to Israel. The Palestinian state will be demilitarized, protected by international forces. And the conflict will end.

"Time is running out," Ayalon says, "not against Palestinians or Israelis but against a two-state solution, which is the only solution, in which Palestine will belong to the Palestinians and Israel will have a national identity."

"Most Israelis," he admitted, "sign on to this plan because they hate Palestinians and do not want them in the country."

Since its release in September 2002, about 100,000 Israelis and 65,000 Palestinians have signed on to the initiative.

"The international community — meaning America — should say that in order to implement the road map we need to add the missing piece, the last page," he said.

Ayalon calls this aspect of the initiative "back to the future," starting from the end.

"We need a clear vision of what a final status peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians will be, including solutions for Jerusalem, borders, refugees, security and settlements. Unless we touch these five nerves of the conflict, we shall not be able to make the painful concessions that both sides must make.

"We cannot bring settlers back to Israel and then find out that Palestinians won't give up the right of return. Palestinians will not fight Muslim extremists unless they know that we are going to give up settlements.

"Removing the settlements will be the most painful act since the creation of Zionism," he said. "The left cannot do it. The right lacks the courage."

The Palestinian press has been especially critical of the initiative's rejection of the right of return, the right of Palestinians to return to their houses and villages, even those within the state of Israel.

"We are separating our rights from our dreams. Rights belong to the past. In my generation, we shall not agree on the past. The best scenario we shall agree on is the future and the present," Ayalon said.

A peace plan based on mutual hatred being promoted by a one-time torturer: Does it stand a chance?

It does because it presents a clear, hard-nosed, workable vision and is gaining momentum from the grass roots.

"Victory has no meaning in the Middle East today. Violence will bring us no future," Ayalon said. I hope he's right.

Susan Ives can be reached at suives@texas.net.