|
Israel Gets Endorsement
from U.S. To Do Anything
All Palestinians Get is This Lousy T-shirt
NEWS ANALYSIS by Ian Schwartz
In a stunning shift of U.S. policy, President Bush on Wednesday gave his
enthusiastic endorsement to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
controversial plan to retain some West Bank settlements under a future peace
accord with the Palestinians.
The president also sided with the Israelis on "right of return," denying
Palestinian refugees the right to return to the Arab land seized by Israel
during the 1967 Six-Day War. While Bush says the plan will go a long way
toward building an independent Palestinian state and Sharon is delighted with
Bush's approval—without which he stood small chance of winning the
disengagement vote in May—the other side of the deadly, long-running dispute
strongly denounced the plan.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called Bush's intervention "the complete end
of the peace process." Other angry Palestinian officials appeared to dismiss
the new American stance, claiming that Israel must deal directly with
Palestinian leadership to forge a peace accord.
Under Sharon's plan, Israel would pull out all 7,500 Jewish settlers and
troops from the bitterly contested Gaza Strip and all but six blocs of Jewish
settlements from the West Bank, leaving about 92,000 of the 240,000 Jews
currently residing there. The withdrawal, or "disengagement," would be
complete sometime in 2005, which is when the so-called "road map" plan calls
for an establishment of an independent Palestine.
The road map plan, favored by the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union
and Russia, is a step-by-step process that would end the fighting and
culminate in an independent Palestine.
Bush's endorsement of Sharon’s plan is in direct contradiction of his
predecessors, including his father. Former president Jimmy Carter, who
coincidentally brokered the accord that ended hostilities between Israel and
Egypt in the 1970s, called the disputed Jewish settlements illegal. So did the
elder Bush during his presidency, according to Palestinian Cabinet Minister
Saeb Erekat. The minister said that the senior Bush sent secretary of state
James Baker to the Middle East in 1991 with a letter assuring that the
settlements were illegal.
But the current Bush has rarely stood on ceremony or honored tradition. Nor
does he shy away from taking a proactive approach to a dispute that has
plagued the world for more than half a century. The situation between Israel
and its Arab neighbors has been a stagnant, tit for tat struggle for years,
with only ephemeral progress toward peace.
Although done in his usual scorched-earth diplomatic style, Bush's endorsement
of the plan, which he termed "historic and courageous," shakes up and adds
worldwide legitimacy to a process that, for decades, has been bogged down in
vitriol and rhetoric.
Bush's approval of the plan sets several wheels to spinning, all of which
could eventually result in at least a tenuous peace in the hotly contested
area. First and foremost, Sharon must be able to push the vote through next
month—still not a given. Israeli leadership has been historically reluctant to
give up hard-won inches of desert. Paradoxically, Palestinian terrorists may
launch an offensive in an attempt to anger voters into opting against a
pullout.
But if Sharon can get the job done in the face of heavy opposition, and forces
and settlers pull up stakes from Gaza and the West Bank, it would be hard for
Palestinians to garner much support in the court of world opinion if they
continue to fight. So while Bush's endorsement might, on paper, appear to be a
push for an impossible, one-sided peace, it could in effect force both sides
to lay down arms.
Sharon has made it quite clear that he is not looking for the Palestinians to
come to the bargaining table. He has laid out his plan for his country’s
security, and that is that. "I do not know what we would have to talk about,"
he said, referring to a sit-down with the Palestinians.
The former general was elated at Bush's concession that a final peace deal
provides for Palestinian refugees to be resettled in a Palestinian state.
Palestinians claim that thousands of its citizens are families or the
descendents of families evicted by Israel upon creation of the Jewish state 57
years ago. Also included in that category are those whose homes have been lost
as a result of ground won by Israel in battle. Bush failed to acknowledge
their claims, stating that "realities on the ground and in the region have
changed greatly." With those words, he became the first U.S. president to cede
even a portion of the disputed territory to Israel.
The peace process will not be helped by the fact that some of Sharon's
concessions to the Arabs are somewhat ambiguous. The security fence which
Israel is building to deter Palestinian attacks, a project that has drawn
international ire, will be temporary, Sharon said, but gave no timeline for
its dismantling. He also said he would limit the growth of Jewish settlements,
a rather vague statement.
But the key concession is the momentous disengagement, which sends a definite
message to the international community that Sharon and Israel are looking for
an egress from the seemingly endless border war with Palestine. While a real
dispute still remains over Jerusalem, which the Palestinians will surely want
to be included in the formulation of an independent state, the handing over of
Gaza and large portions of the West Bank would be an unprecedented move toward
peace.
What remains to be seen is how Palestine leaders will handle Bush making
concessions on their behalf. If they truly want peace—an honorable peace
resulting from bold thinking, then they'll get past his impetuousness. If not,
then the deadly dispute will continue with no end in sight. |
