Posted on 05/07/2003 7:37:16 AM PDT by SJackson
With the windup of the Iraq war, the nerve center for U.S. foreign policy is shifting back from the Pentagon to the State Department, which is the core of American support for the quartet's road map.
CBN.com – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, the U.S. and its "quartet" partners gave Israeli and Palestinian leaders a final draft of the so-called "road map" for peace in the Middle East. Critics have called the plan a "road map to disaster." But President Bush has committed to pursue the plan as a way to end more than 31 months of constant violence. These days, the United States does not have much common political ground with the United Nations, the European Union or the Russians. But together as the quartet, the four parties are pressing ahead with the road map — the latest diplomatic attempt to end years of unbroken violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
With the windup of the Iraq war, the nerve center for U.S. foreign policy is shifting back from the Pentagon to the State Department, which is the core of American support for the quartet's road map.
Last week, as a draft of the peace plan was submitted to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, it was Secretary of State Colin Powell, not President Bush, who went before the cameras.
"Two independent states, the Jewish state of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, that is our vision. And with the confirmation of Minister Abu Mazen as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, a new opportunity has been created for achieving the President's vision," Powell said.
But the vision was shrouded by another terrorist suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, just hours after the road map was presented. And Israel responded with a military strike against terrorist strongholds in Gaza. More than a dozen Palestinians died.
Still, the quartet is forging ahead with the road map, as it was drafted last year. In that draft, the plan has three phases.
At the outset of phase one, the Palestinian leadership must issue a statement that calls for a cease-fire, and acknowledges Israel's right to exist in peace and security. For its part, Israel must affirm its support for a Palestinian state and call for an end to violence against Palestinians.
But Israeli spokesmen warn that any peace plan is a non-starter if Palestinian terrorism does not end.
Mark Sofer with the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, "Of course, there are obligations on Israel, but first and foremost, the terrorism has to cease. The dismantling of the terrorist organizations has to be put in place immediately, because otherwise we will see exactly what we have seen just a few hours ago in the heart of Israel."
In phase one of the road map, a rebuilt Palestinian security force is supposed to begin "sustained, targeted, and effective operations to confront all those engaged in terror." That force is also expected to take out the terrorist infrastructure.
The Bush administration has high hopes that new Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen will take on the terrorists. Frank Gaffney of Washington's Center for Security Policy, says the hopes are unfounded.
"This notion that he will take action, violent action, to stop the terrorists and put them permanently out of business, it isn't gonna happen," Gaffney said.
Israel's role in phase one is to dismantle all Jewish communities set up in the West Bank and Gaza since March of 2001, and freeze all other settlement activity. Israel must also stop attacks on Palestinian civilians, lift curfews, and end deportations and the destruction of homes and property.
Old guard members of Yasser Arafat's regime say Israel's raid on Gaza last week is a betrayal of the peace plan. Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat said, "Is this the Israeli government response to the road map? Is their answer to the road map going to be through more escalation, more bullets and more assassinations and more incursions? That can't stand."
Under phase two of the road map, the quartet would hold an international conference following Palestinian elections. Israel and the P.A. would draw up provisional borders for a Palestinian state, perhaps by the end of 2003.
In phase three, another international conference would be held. This time the purpose would be to reach a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. It would settle permanent borders, the plight of some three million Palestinian refugees, and perhaps most contentious of all, the status of Jerusalem.
Gaffney does not believe the plan will get that far. "I can tell you that any plan designed by the European Union, the Russians, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department will have no sympathy for the positions Israel has taken — one of which is that Jerusalem is its indivisible capital," he said.
In Israel, the Sharon government is divided over the road map. Most Israelis want peace and self-rule for the Palestinians, but not without security first.
Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky said, "Probably in the end, it will need some serious concessions also on our side; but it is a big mistake to start discussing these concessions when the other side is trying to destroy us with the help of terror."
Gaffney and others believe the biggest obstacle to the road map is another map — the one printed in textbooks and hanging on walls throughout the Arab world. It shows no Israel, only Palestine.
Gaffney said, "We're basically buying into the same pig in a poke, if you will, that we have bought into in the past, only to discover to our regret and often to the detriment of our friends in Israel that there was no peace. There would not be any peace. Because the end game is, as the map suggests, the destruction of the state of Israel."
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oh, never mind...
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