A rchive Date
[ 07-08-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur_toronto.html
The road to peace
By SALIM MANSUR -- For the Toronto Sun
August 7, 2003
LONDON, Ont. -- The road map to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, despite difficulties, is the only viable path to a final resolution of this old conflict. The road map visualizes the peace process ending in two states, Jewish and Palestinian, co-existing together in the former British Mandate of Palestine.
Until this road map designed by "the Quartet" - the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States - was disclosed at the end of April, the final outcome of negotiations under the terms of the now defunct Oslo Accord of 1993 remained hazy.
Moreover, it was a logical outcome of U.S. President George Bush's speech of June 24, 2002 in which he gave an unambiguous support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Bush recently travelled to the Middle East and met the leaders of Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan. At the end of July, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, visited Washington to confirm their commitments to proceed on the road map to achieve ends desired by their people.
The difficulties, however, cannot be minimized. On both sides there are those uncompromising of their own interests at the expense of the other, and disposed to violence.
The challenge ahead is greater for Abbas, since progress in terms of Israeli departure from the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza is conditional on the prior cessation of all Palestinian terror and violence against Israelis.
Abbas cannot deliver this prerequisite to progress on the road map all by himself, and without the support of the wider Arab/Muslim world. On the contrary, support for Palestinian terror and violence continues to flow into the occupied territories from outside and remains beyond the capacity of Abbas' Palestinian Authority security forces to police.
The obvious question, under these circumstances, is why the Arab League and, more importantly, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) have not yet embraced the road map to peace providing Abbas the strategic support and goodwill vital for success?
Since the UN partition of Palestine in November, 1947 and the establishment of Israel in May, 1948, the Arab League and the Muslim majority states - except for Turkey, later joined by Egypt and Jordan - explained their non-recognition of Israel as standing together with Palestinians in their just struggle to acquire statehood.
Following the October, 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinians gained the diplomatic support of the Afro-Asian bloc of UN member states through the efforts of the Arab League and the OIC.
Yasser Arafat, as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), was invited in November, 1974 to address the General Assembly in New York, and the PLO was given an observer status at the UN.
Then such efforts culminated in adoption of the infamous UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 of November, 1975, declaring "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." This resolution was revoked in December, 1991 by a new coalition of UN member states after the fall of Soviet communism.
Nevertheless, fundamental changes in the attitudes of Israelis - Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969 was reported as saying there were no Palestinians - and Palestinians occurred, making possible mutual recognition in 1993, and their efforts at negotiating a final settlement have survived the tremendous opposition of extremist elements on both sides.
In these circumstances, and when there is a clear commitment of the Bush administration for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the full and unconditional diplomatic recognition of the Jewish state by OIC members would immensely enhance Israel's security, strengthen the position of Mahmoud Abbas, greatly isolate terrorists and contribute in expediting the peace process towards the desired goal of Palestinians for statehood.
But the unwillingness of OIC members to publicly embrace the Quartet's road map to peace suggests their past concerns for Palestinian rights were at best dubious.
And the continued non-recognition of Israel is indicative of their entrenched bigotry towards Jews and Jewish rights to a secure state in Palestine being contrary to Islam, and the better part of Jewish-Muslim history of more than a millennium.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Thursdays. He can be reached at smansurca@yahoo.ca Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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