Israel and US lock horns over international peace plan

ASSOCIATED PRESS ^ | Jerusalem, April 1, 2003

[BOSTON BRAHMIN]

Israel and the United States locked horns on Tuesday over the implementation of an US-backed peace plan, with Washington reportedly saying it will publish the "roadmap" despite Israeli demands that further changes be made.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom stressed after a meeting with US President George W. Bush that the Palestinians had to fight "terrorism" before any implementation of the peace plan.

But Bush, facing a tougher than expected campaign in Iraq and with mounting tension in the Arab world, insisted he was "serious" about pushing ahead with the step-by-step plan to forge a Palestinian state, Israeli public radio said.

"I said clearly there cannot be two parallel paths: the war against terrorism in the day and negotiations at night," Shalom told the radio in Washington.

"The end of terrorism constitutes the central question for a return to negotiations with the Palestinians," he said.

Shalom, who was making his first visit to Washington since being named foreign minister last month, met Bush late on Monday when the US leader dropped in on talks he was holding with US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.

He also met with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The roadmap is a plan setting out the steps to Palestinian statehood by the year 2005. Based on a Bush speech on the Middle East last June, it was drafted by US, UN, EU and Russian diplomats, but Israel has raised a number of objections.

[truthandlife]

Not good news for Israel or the U.S. Our government needs to wake up!

Palestinians contingents deployed to Iraq (to fight for Saddam)

[ex-snook]

Will he neo-cons be for or against Bush? Buchanan predicted on McLaughlin that Bush will go wobbly.

[rmlew]

virtually all neocons support Israel.
Only a minority are Jewish.

[Bella_Bru]

insisted he was "serious" about pushing ahead with the step-by-step plan to forge a Palestinian state

So, Bush will insist they return to Jordan?

[Bella_Bru]

Pinging the owner of the ME ping list.

[k2blader]

I dislike what President Bush is doing here.

"There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews." - Golda Meir

[LincolnLover]

I made this observation last week: the current Israeli government is gonna get rolled on this issue once this war is over.

The pressure on Pres. Bush by, well, every country not named Israel to get a "permanent" (well, as permanent as these things can be, I guess) 2-state solution in place will be overwhelming, even from some on the Right.

Even neocons who are pushing this "reverse domino theory" (in which autocratic M.E. regiemes become liberated by association and/or force, starting with Iraq) will want to give ground on Arab demands in the peace process if it means things like Arab recognition of the state of Israel, etc.

The best postwar strategy, IMO, for the Israeli government is to reach out to (and I use this term loosely) "moderate" regiemes in Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq as soon as practicable. This admittedly will take years, but you have to start somewhere.

[Bella_Bru]

ping.

[ex-snook]

"virtually all neocons support Israel. Only a minority are Jewish. "

I agree. I just want to see if neo-cons are for or against Bush. Neo-cons are a political group that wants open immigration, big government, and a new world order. It is not a religious or racial designation.

[FierceDraka]

There can be no peace - Islam forbids it.

[tessalu]

Jordan border patrol has said that several thousand Islamic jihad have crossed over the borders.

[tessalu]

The Quran says that Muslims can not make friends of Christians and Jews, and Bush needs to read that into his plans. Isamics are a fanatic people, and common sense and reason does not enter into them. They are barabaric, so wake up! We think like Americans, and most of us have not known such evil in all of our lives, and we are just naive.
What will it take to wake us up?

[rmlew]

Neo-cons are a political group that wants open immigration, big government, and a new world order.

You are confusing them with liberals.
Neocons support high levels of legal immigration matched with programs to Americanize them. They oppose illegal immigration. Don't confuse the Weekly Standard with the Wall Street Journal.
Neocons are not he strict-Constructionalists that paleo-libertarians ande paleo-conservatives are. However they oppose most large government programs.

They do not support the New World Order if it is the UN. They support a world order with America as a hegemon of liberal democracies imposing this form of government on other regimes.

[FierceDraka]

Jordan border patrol has said that several thousand Islamic jihad have crossed over the borders.

Sounds like a target-rich environment to me. Feuer Frei! (Open Fire!)