Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Twists and Turns in the Road Map for Peace
Israel's PM Ariel Sharon and Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas
The Road Map for Peace between Israelis and Palestinians is like a football being kicked around with the US as the referee, but many believed, especially in the Arab world, the US is a biased referee.
But latest media reports coming out of Washington are saying that the Bush Administration, in particular the State Department, is taking a tough stand against Israel if it sinks this Road Map.
But how much clout does the State Department under Colin Powell has, to take on, firstly, the neo-conservative hardliners found mainly in the Defense Department, who had made their pro-Israel stance blatantly obvious, and secondly, the strong pro-Israel lobbyists in Congress? The unfolding events in the coming weeks will tell whether this Bush Administration is made of sterner stuff to resolve this on-going human tragedy for both sides in the conflict, since the creation of Israel in 1948.
George Bush is putting his personal print into the Middle East peace process as he said he will go to the Middle East himself to talk to the two leaders as well as other leaders in the region.
It is interesting times now in the Middle East, with loose ends still untied in Iraq after the war, and now with Washington's itch to have a fight with Iran. Meanwhile the problem with North Korea's nuclear programme is still unresolved.
Here are the links to news reports and commentaries by columnists relating to attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Click on the links to read the full stories
FULL TEXT OF THE MIDDLE EAST ROAD MAP
Sally Bolton and Simon Jeffery (Guardian UK) : FAQ - Overview and background of the road map to peace: The conflict has developed its own logic of hate and anger that perpetuates the killing. On the Israeli side many fear the Palestinians want to drive them into the sea. Many Palestinians feel besieged by Israel and fear the Jewish state will, if not annex the West Bank and Gaza, deny the right of an economically and politically viable Palestinian state to exist.
Alexander Cockburn : The road map hoax - Mideast 'progress' is an illusion -- we've been here before: Don't waste your time fretting over the fortunes of the "road map" to peace in the Middle East. It's all a fraud, following the contours of all the other frauds down the years, back to such museum pieces as the Rogers Plan, conceived in Nixon time .
Israel's PM Ariel Sharon
Kathleen Christison: Same Old Shellgame - What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets: The Israeli cabinet's highly qualified acceptance on Sunday of the "roadmap" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is likely to mean the final derailment of this latest in a line of misbegotten peace plans. Just a random sampling of the Sunday morning talk shows demonstrates why this perverse reality is so. Senator Joseph Lieberman said "yes", when asked whether the Bush administration should now ignore the other members of the Quartet altogether (the others being the European Union, the UN, and Russia) and go ahead with the roadmap in whatever way the administration saw. According to Lieberman, the Israelis mistrust the rest of the Quartet, and if "we expect Israel to make peace we have to accommodate its concerns." On Wolf Blitzer's Late Edition on CNN, Representative Tom Lantos was asked about the Israeli cabinet's rejection, of any consideration of a Palestinian right of return as a condition for accepting the roadmap. Lantos dismissed the right of return as a spurious demand. And he said, in any case, the right of return has never been considered a serious part of the negotiating process
Chris McGreal (Guardian UK): Sharon derides EU peace efforts - Israeli leader says only the US view is relevant : In an interview held on 19th January, 2003 Ariel Sharon dismissed European peace efforts as anti-Israeli and said only the US matters in deciding the fate of the Palestinians. The prime minister's comments followed an interview with Newsweek magazine released on 19th January 2003 in which he was asked about the efforts of the Quartet - the US, UN, EU and Russia - to map out a road to peace. "Oh, the quartet is nothing! Don't take it seriously! There is [another] plan that will work," he said.
DEBKAfile(Israel) Special Analysis (May 25, 2003 ): Middle East Road Map – A Small Inset on US Postwar Atlas: What has led Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to fit unreservedly into America’s geo-strategic box for the postwar Middle East? What has President George W. Bush promised him for saying yes to the Middle East road map, a document that no one except its authors believes in? What role is assigned the Palestinians? And how much will it cost Israel?
DEBKAfile (Israel) Exclusive Report: Middle East Road Map – A Useful Cover Story: After undergoing several metamorphoses since its formulation by the Quartet, the Middle East road map looks rather like a skimpy blanket pulled over Ariel Sharon, Colin Powell, Bashar Assad, Abu Mazen and Yasser Arafat while each keeps to his own bed.
Jonathan Wright (Reuters): On May 13,2003, Powell says U.S. will not rewrite Middle East road map: . Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States does not plan to rewrite or renegotiate its road map for Middle East peace. Powell said the document, accepted by the Palestinians but not by Israel, was "the only path" to peace."They (the Israeli government) have some comments on the road map and we will listen to their comments but we do not plan to rewrite or renegotiate the road map," Powell told reporters in Amman on the third leg of a Middle East tour.
Ali Abunimah.(The Electronic Intifada ) : Who's afraid of the Road Map?: Even before its publication, Israel's supporters in the United States launched a vigorous campaign to sabotage the U.S.-sponsored 'Road Map' for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Nearly 400 members of the U.S. House and Senate signed letters circulated by the pro-Israeli lobby opposing the plan.
Cal Thomas (Syndicated Columnist): Road Map to Middle East Disaster: It is a road map to disaster for Israel.It requires Israel to give up real land which it had seized for its own security and the so-called Palestinians to “promise” to fight terrorism.They are unlikely to fight terrorism.
Arab News (25 May 2003) Editorial: The Israeli Cabinet’s endorsement of the road map, following yesterday’s vote, should have come as little surprise. The Middle East peace plan is the only initiative currently on the table and without the Cabinet’s green light, the plan would have hit a dead end and Israel would have been blamed for not wanting a settlement to be reached. In addition, the road map is the only initiative which the United States, a party that helped draft it, is willing to deal with — meaning that Israel would have risked being put in Washington’s doghouse had it not gone along with what its closest ally wants.
Greg Myre (New York Times) : Sharon defends road map: Sharon argued that Israel had no real option but to accept the measures outlined in the peace plan. After a stormy session, the Israeli cabinet voted 12 to 7 in favor, with 4 abstentions. Sharon hit back at his critics in the Likud Party with language that sounded as if it were coming straight from Israel's liberal peace camp."You may not like the word, but what's happening is occupation," he told Likud members of Parliament. "Holding 3.5 million Palestinians is a bad thing for Israel, for the Palestinians and for the Israeli economy. We have to end this subject without risking our security."
Ravin Nessman (AP): Israelis Puzzled by `New` Sharon : Theories abound: Sharon is trying to secure his place in history. He is trying to deflect U.S. pressure. He is trying to avoid blame, assuming the Palestinians will themselves scuttle the plan by failing to stop terrorism.
Chris Marsden (29 May 2003) : Sharon has not changed his spots: When the inveterate war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is being portrayed as a born-again advocate of peace and the creation of a Palestinian state, one knows that something truly despicable is being planned.
Haaretz(Israel) News paper: Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom Shalom said Palestinian refugees won't return to Israel : During the meeting Shalom warned Israel's neighbors that a return of Palestinian refugees or their descendants to its territory was not negotiable under any peace settlement. He vowed to push the peace process forward but said Arab nations must do more to help solve the refugee problem. "There will be no way refugees will be settled in the state of Israel," he said and urged Arab states to accept the refugees, estimated at some 4 million, on a permanent basis.
Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas
VOA News: Israel's Implementation of 'Road Map' Will Be True Test, says Palestinian PM Abbas: Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas says he is ready to test Israel's commitment to the latest peace plan for the Middle East, known as the "road map". Mr. Abbas says that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's true intentions will only become clear when he implements the "road map."
Akiva Eldar (Haaretz) : Abbas said `U.S. told us to ignore Israeli road map reservations' : Abbas says the Americans proposed he not pay any attention to any of the talk about [Israeli] comments and reservations. They promised him they too would not allow Sharon evade a declaration about an end to [Israeli] violence and incitement, as required by the first article of the road map. The sensitive refugee issue is known to be particularly close to the heart of Abass,himself a refugee from Safed. "We cannot accept relinquishing the right of return," he said.
William Pfaff: Why Ariel Sharon supported the Road Map and surprised his right wing supporters. American Jews force Sharon's hand : Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forced his cabinet to say yes to the plan, and to accept the principle of Palestinian national independence. Moreover, Sharon has shocked his party and country by using forbidden words. He told members of his Likud party Monday that Israel is "occupying" Palestine, and that this can't go on.
Arnon Regular and Aluf Benn, Haaretz: Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Ariel Sharon will meet at 9 P.M. in Jerusalem on Thursday, for their second round of talks in as many weeks after the initial meeting was called off. Abbas told the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that he expected to reach an agreement with Hamas by next week for a complete halt to attacks on Israelis. Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Thursday that the organization has set no preconditions for discussing a cease-fire agreement with Abu Mazen, and is willing to consider halting violence in the territories as well as inside Israel. Hamas religious leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin on Wednesday told Abu Mazen that Hamas will not surrender its weapons until a Palestinian state is declared. Sharon will tell Abu Mazen that Israel has accepted the Palestinian demands, and the road map, and now it is the Palestinians' turn to take steps against terror. Sharon will propose that Abu Mazen take gradual security control over areas that the IDF withdraws from.
The News International, Pakistan: Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said on Wednesday Israel's acceptance of the U.S.-backed road map to peace was "a trick" and warned that Washington could not be an honest peace broker. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has called on militants to end the armed struggle against Israel, has accepted the road map, which calls for an end to 32 months of violence and the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet approved the staged peace plan on Sunday, but with reservations, primarily on security issues.
Amnesty Issues Mideast Violence Report: Amnesty International issued its annual report Wednesday and accused Israel of war crimes and Palestinian militants of crimes against humanity.
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