24/05/2003

Palestine Media Centre – (PMC)

Israel’s vague acceptance of the internationally-adopted “roadmap” to peace in the Middle East and the seemingly conflicting messages to the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the conflict by the US administration have been cautiously welcomed by the Palestinian leadership.

The United States President George W. Bush on Friday announced that the Israeli "Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon accepted the road map, and that's progress."

Bush’s statement followed another issued by Sharon’s office, which stated that, "The Prime Minister says that the state of Israel is ready to accept the steps which are outlined in the road map, and it will be presented for the government for approval" on Sunday or Monday.

Washington sent seemingly conflicting messages on Friday to break the diplomatic deadlock, assuring Palestinians there would be no changes in the plan, but also announcing that Israel’s objections would be taken into account.

The Palestinian leadership on Friday said it “is following up on the serious US attention given to the implementation of the ‘roadmap’ plan and stresses the importance of committing to the ‘roadmap’ without any change.”

In a press release issued after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the West Bank city of Ramallah attended by President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas the leadership stressed the importance of dealing with the “roadmap” as one package.

“The Palestinian leadership deals with the ‘roadmap’ on the basis of a complete commitment to all its elements, stages and timetables by all parties,” it said.

The PLO statement came after a US announcement that the White House would “fully and seriously” consider Israel’s concerns about the Middle East roadmap for peace, though the Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in Paris that this did not mean that the plan would have to be changed.

“The roadmap was presented to the Government of Israel with a request from the President that it respond with contributions to this document to advance true peace. The United States Government received a response from the Government of Israel, explaining its significant
concerns about the roadmap,” said the statement by Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on Friday.

The US announcement did not specify which of the Israeli concerns Washington was willing to address.

“The United States shares the view of the Government of Israel that these are real concerns, and will address them fully and seriously in the implementation of the roadmap to fulfil the President's vision of June 24, 2002,” the US statement said.

A top Palestinian official reacted by stressing that changes to the “roadmap” are “unacceptable.”

"All changes, which could be brought to the roadmap, would be unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Arafat’s media adviser.

The Palestine National Authority (PNA) said it had been assured by Washington that there would be no changes to the plan, and that it had accepted it based on this promise.

Hassan Abdel Rahman, the head of the PLO office in Washington D.C., told Reuters, "We hope that it (the plan) will not change. That's our understanding. They (the Americans) say it does not mean amending the road map."

"We are pleased that the United States is taking the road map seriously and willing to act on it, and is urging the parties to go ahead. We are pleased that the United States does not accept amending the road map," he added.

Abdel Rahman declined to speculate on how the United States could address “Israel’s concerns” without making changes.

The PNA Information Minister Nabil Amr welcomed Sharon’s preliminary acceptance of the peace plan saying, "We consider this Israeli position as a positive step in the right direction. We hope that Israel will shoulder its responsibilities according to this plan."

“We are ready to implement the road map as one package and without any changes,” Nabil Amr added.

However other PNA officials were cautious.

Palestinian minister of culture Ziad Abu Amr said the Palestinians had not voiced their misgivings when accepting the plan because they were eager to move forward.

"If the US administration assures Israel that it will take into account its reservations, the same treatment should be extended to the Palestinian side," he said, declining to elaborate.

Similarly Saeb Erekat, until recently the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, was wary of Sharon’s stance and Washington's acceptance of his reservations concerning the peace plan.

"We seek clarifications from the US on how they'll be taking into account the Israeli reservations," he said. "Any change during the implementation (of the road map) will have a devastating impact on the whole process."

American officials have indicated that they might propose adding annexes or side letters to the main document. The official American position is that any changes must be discussed between the Israelis and the Palestinians directly, the British daily The Independent said.

Bush Considering Three-way Summit

Meanwhile, Sharon’s office announced his acceptance after Washington said it would address Israel's reservations about the plan as it is being implemented.

Soon after Israel’s announcement, Bush said he was considering calling a three-way summit.

Pleased with Sharon’s move, Bush hinted he was considering hosting a summit between Sharon and Palestinian premier Abbas in what would mark the president's first real plunge into Middle East peace-making.

"I'm exploring the opportunities as to whether or not I should meet with Prime Minister Abu Mazen as well as Prime Minister Sharon," Bush said to reporters in Texas, after meeting with the visiting Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"If a meeting advances progress toward two states living side by side in peace, I will strongly consider such a meeting," he told reporters in Crawford, Texas.

The summit could take place after the June 1-3 Group of Eight meeting in France, while Egypt and Geneva have been named as possible venues.

Bush is showing a deeper commitment to the peace process following the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

"My feeling is for the first time Bush is really pushing very hard and maybe we can see a break in the deadlock," said Edward Abington, a former diplomat who advises the Palestinians.

Former US President Bill Clinton held a summit at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheik in October 2001 and helped steer Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak into a cease-fire agreement.

Israel’s Objections May Still Foil Peace Plan

The details of the Israeli agreement were thrashed out earlier in the week by Bush administration officials and Dov Weisglass, chief of staff to Sharon. The quid pro quo was that the Israelis would sign on to the “roadmap” only after the Americans made a public statement promising to address their concerns, which Powell and Rice did on Friday.

In fact the Americans made two statements, one from President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, and another made directly by Powell at a news conference in Paris following the first meeting of the G8 foreign ministers.

Administration officials said their goal had been to find a form of words that would allow Sharon to personally endorse the “roadmap,” while still making it possible for him to tell his cabinet that he had made no important concessions.

One US diplomat told The New York Times: "The idea is that Israel accepts the principles, the framework and the process of the road-map and the two-state solution. But Israel would not accept every detail. It doesn't mean Israel won't have comments on certain issues."

Fourteen of 23 Cabinet ministers, including several from Sharon’s hard-line Likud party, have indicated in the past that they oppose the idea of Palestinian statehood. In contrast, Sharon, one of Israel’s most prominent hawks, has said a Palestinian state is inevitable, though he wants to keep it small.

The council representing the illegal Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip demanded that the cabinet block the “roadmap.”

Israeli housing minister Effi Eitam, who heads the pro-settler National Religious Party with two seats in the cabinet, warned he would vote against the plan, Israeli radio reported.

The hard-line National Union party, also with two seats in the cabinet, said it would resist the plan.

Israel’s cabinet minister Ehud Olmert told Israel’s TV channel one Friday that the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees and the Israeli military withdrawal to June 4, 1967 lines are two Israeli red lines.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).