Posted on 10/22/2003 12:17:48 PM PDT by Alouette
Yossi Beilin, undeterred by harsh government criticism, will take his Geneva Initiative to Paris Wednesday and meet with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel in an effort to gain international support.
Former Palestinian Authority information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who headed the Palestinian side in drawing up the initiative, will also take part in the meeting.
A spokesman for Marc Otte, the European Union's newly appointed special Middle East envoy, said the EU is not involved in the meeting in any way. The meeting with de Villepin and Michel in Paris is just one part of a multi-pronged thrust to garner international support for the initiative.
A spokesman at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv said de Villepin is meeting Beilin to learn first hand what the understandings entail. "We are just encouraging any initiative going in the direction of peace between Israel and the Palestinians," the spokesman said.
Asked whether France has endorsed the plan, the spokesman said that Paris still stands behind the road map.
One senior government official in Jerusalem slammed Beilin for going to Paris, saying it is ironic that just a few months ago Beilin was traveling around the world trying to get pressure placed on Sharon to accept the road map. Now that Sharon has accepted the road map, but the PA won't carry out the first phase of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, Beilin has pulled something else out his hat, the official said.
Gideon Meir, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director-general for public affairs, said Israel has accepted the road map, and expects the world to place pressure on the PA to fulfill its obligations. "Discussion on other issues only diverts attention from this," he said.
While de Villepin and Michel will meet with Beilin, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini refused to meet with former MK Uri Savir to discuss the plan. After pressure was placed on him by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, Frattini approved a meeting between Savir and the director of the Italian Foreign Ministry's Middle East desk.
Beilin and Abed Rabbo were also to meet in Paris Monday night with a group of former statesmen, including former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti and former United Nations secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
From Paris, Beilin is to go to Geneva, where he – along with Amram Mitzna and David Kimche – are to meet Palestinians to discuss an official ceremony launching the initiative.
A spokesman for Beilin said the idea initially was that a high-profile ceremony would be needed to drum up public attention for the initiative, but that considering all the publicity already surrounding the plan, the importance of having a large ceremony has declined.
The Swiss government informed Israeli Ambassador Aviv Shiron that it was not involved in organizing the ceremony or inviting the participants. Senior officials in the Swiss Foreign Ministry also told Shiron last week that Switzerland played no role in deciding the content of the agreement, and only provided logistical support.
"I met two senior officials, and they said their involvement in the whole story was strictly logistical, and that they were not involved in the content of the discussions," Shiron said. Shiron quoted the officials as saying one of the principles of Swiss foreign policy is to promote dialogue between either formal or informal sides in international conflicts, as they have done in Sudan, Sri Lanka, and North Korea.
While Shiron did not register a demarche, or formal protest, with the Swiss government over the issue, he said he made it clear that Israel's elected government is the only body empowered to engage in negotiations, and that all other channels "won't be implemented, are not acceptable, and don't obligate anyone." Shiron said he thinks the Swiss "understood the message well."
One senior diplomatic official said a formal governmental protest was not registered, because Israel did not want to trigger a diplomatic crisis with Switzerland over a paper that "is not going anywhere." Shiron said the embassy in Bern gave no advice to the Swiss Jewish community, which numbers about 18,000, on whether they should protest their government's involvement in the talks.
"We did not tell the Jewish community what to tell the Swiss government. They are Swiss citizens, and can tell the Swiss government whatever they think," Shiron said. "When they asked me, I told them what I told the Swiss Foreign Ministry in the name of the government of Israel – that nothing obligates Israel except the road map, and from our point of view there is no other document."
One of those who did criticize the Swiss government's involvement is Alfred Donath, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Switzerland. In press interviews Donath said his main criticism was that the Swiss government did not inform the Israeli government of the initiative, and chose "frustrated Israeli politicians to talk to."
Donath is slated to meet Wednesday with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey to discuss the matter.
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