A rchive Date
[ 27-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news2.htm
Israelis, Palestinians manoeuvre the 'map'
By Dan Perry
The Associated Press
Sunday, April 27, 2003
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The “roadmap” to Mideast peace is backed by a rare global consensus neither Israelis nor Palestinians want to rebuff. But its prescription for ending 31 months of violence includes bitter pills for both sides, and there will likely be wrangling over who makes the first move.
The plan is to be presented by US President George W. Bush once the Palestinian parliament has approved prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas and his Cabinet. That vote must be held by Wednesday, and a possibility remains that Abbas will fail to get a necessary majority.
Past efforts by US and other mediators to end the conflict have failed. However, there is a sense among many Israelis and Palestinians that the roadmap might succeed because of greater US engagement in the region in the wake of the Iraq war and reforms in the Palestinian Authority.
Israelis and Palestinians have sharply divergent expectations of the initiative - a three-phase, three-year timetable towards Palestinian statehood and a comprehensive settlement of the century-long conflict.
Israel says once the plan is unveiled, it will discuss changes. The Palestinians say they have US assurances that a version submitted in late December is final.
“We are committed to carrying out our obligations under the roadmap and we are waiting to hear these magic words from the Israeli side,” Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told The Associated Press. “The onus is on President (Bush) now” to enforce the plan, he said.
Authored by the so-called “Quartet” of the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations, the roadmap tackles the task of dividing the Holy Land between two intertwined, hostile and determined peoples. Phase I calls for ending the violence and freezing Jewish settlement construction and allows for Palestinian elections.
Phase II sets up a Palestinian state with “provisional borders.” The borders are not outlined, but it is likely the temporary state would cover the disconnected autonomy zones that were established in the 1990s and have mostly been reoccupied by Israel.
Phase III tackles the tough issues that scuttled the last peace effort: Final borders, claims over occupied Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It provides no inkling of how to get past the disagreements that killed the previous peace talks.
Getting through the first phase will be difficult enough.
The Palestinians must bring all security organisations under control of the interior ministry, to be headed by Abbas. This would likely force Abbas into a showdown with Yasser Arafat, who retains control over some of the security bodies and has been reluctant to share power.
Even more difficult is the required “dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure” by the Palestinian Authority - which could set off the sort of internecine fighting with groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades which Arafat has avoided.
The plan also stipulates the expected ceasefire means an end to “all violence against Israelis anywhere.” That means Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza are also off-limits - a position even Palestinian moderates find difficult to embrace.
Israel, meanwhile, must make its own about-face. For starters, its government must issue a call for “an immediate end to violence against Palestinians anywhere” - potentially including the “targeted killings” of scores of activists and fighters in a “war on terror” Israel claims it is winning.
On the political side, Israel must issue an “unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to ... an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state.” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he would agree to a Palestinian state, but on far less land than Palestinians want, and with serious limitations on its independence.
Sharon's Palestinian state would not be able to sign defence treaties and wouldn't control its borders or airspace. Furthermore, Sharon's Likud Party last year adopted a resolution opposing Palestinian statehood, and with a majority in his Cabinet opposing the idea, his coalition government could fall on this issue alone.
No less difficult is the requirement that Israel immediately dismantle scores of settlement outposts erected since March 2001, and freeze all settlement activity.
For Sharon - one of the chief patrons of the Jewish settler movement - this would be a wrenching concession. And if he gives in, it could well cause two coalition partners - the rightist National Religious Party and the National Union - to bolt, depriving him of the majority he needs to govern.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many new outposts are needed to protect the older, established settlements, and therefore could not be dismantled until Palestinian attacks have ended. The official said Israel viewed the roadmap as a sequential process in which success in one step leads to progress to the next, and that the condition for any progress is a “100 per cent effort” by the Palestinians to end “terrorism.”
But Erekat insisted “the basic structure of the roadmap is the parallel, mutual implementation of obligations, monitored by the world.” The roadmap refers to itself as “performance-based and goal-driven” and states that “the parties are expected to perform their obligations in parallel, unless otherwise indicated.” It also says the Palestinians' “unconditional cessation of violence” should be “accompanied” by the actions required of Israel.
Who will be the judge of what this means? The plan says the quartet will meet regularly to evaluate the parties' performance, and progress into Phase II will be based on “consensus judgement” of the quartet.
The Palestinians, who want European and UN involvement, agree with this. But Israel wants the decision to be in the hands of the United States - and itself.
In a possible reflection of how long the road will be, the map - for all its far-reaching vision - never refers to the Palestinian state being created by its actual name: “Palestine.”
Muasher meets Rice
WASHINGTON, DC (Petra) - Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher reiterated Jordan's call for a swift formation of a broad-based Iraqi government that represents all segments of the Iraqi people.
During a meeting here with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Muasher stressed the significance of an announcement and implementation of the roadmap to Mideast peace.
The top diplomat said it is important to give the international community and the countries in the region a key role in the reconstruction of Iraq. This role, he added, should not only be confined to the humanitarian aspect, but also to be of a political nature - “a factor that would enhance US' credibility.” On the peace process, Muasher said the US and the international community should guarantee that both the Palestinians and the Israelis aptly implement the roadmap, expected to lead to an end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The foreign minister, who earlier held talks over the phone with Premier-designate Mahmoud Abbas, conveyed to Rice the Palestinian position on the roadmap.
Muasher also met with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby. He is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Secretary Colin Powell on Monday.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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