Posted on 02/20/2004 12:06:59 PM PST by yonif
Princeton, New Jersey-AP -- Secretary of State Colin Powell is giving another prod to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Powell said in a speech at Princeton University that the Israeli leader should take steps to permit the Palestinians to live a better life. This is part of what Powell hopes would be an Israeli effort to move on the Bush administration's so-called "road map" for peace.
Still, Powell reiterates what he's said before -- that he blames Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for sabotaging those U-S efforts. Powell doesn't believe Arafat has done enough to stop Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis.
The Mideast issue is on the agenda for both Powell and President Bush.
Powell is meeting late today with three U-S officials who've returned from discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Tomorrow, the team meets with Bush.
The US must lift the safety net it has over Arafat.
What have the Palestinians done to deserve better treatment and why should Israel be responsible for their better life?
They elected their own leader who is robbing them blind and yet they support him.
Powell seems like he is taking sides on this.
SunStar to Sec. Powell - Keep your mouth closed unless you have something of worth to say.
Kill Arafat and all his thugs along with Hamas and the Palestinians will have a better life.
Without so naming it, Powell gave the best description and justification of the Bush Doctrine that I have yet heard, presenting it merely as the obvious implication of a belief in freedom and the rule of law and the obvious response to a world situation clearly understood by Bush and his administration. Powell's answers to the audience questions after the talk were also priceless.
The grown-ups are in charge!
Don't miss it when it shows up on the C-Span Web site, or set your VCR to C-SPAN Saturday at 5:40 am, or check the C-SPAN schedule in case it shows up again this weekend.
This is a mischaracterization of what Powell said (but this is the AP). The emphasis of Powell's remarks was on the Bush vision for a two-state solution, and on Arafat's unwillingness either to restrain terrorism or to release his hold on power to a new prime minister.
I invite you all to read (listen) the entire speech.
Here is the Q&A the AP tried to report on.
QUESTION: My name is Tafiq Rahim (ph). I'm a senior in the Woodrow Wilson School. Secretary Powell, thank you for your speech. It has been an honor for us at the University to host you today, and I have tremendous respect for you as a statesman and an individual.
That being said, there are several trends in the Bush Administration that I find truly troubling. In particular, I would like to address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
There is no question that Arab-backed terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad need to halt their horrendous terrorist attacks inside Israel that not only prove subversive to the peace process but are grossly immoral and despicable.
However, while the United States seeks to serve as a beacon of freedom to the world, as you said, criticizing nations such as Syria, Iran and others for the lack of rights for their people, and President Bush is highly prominent on the issue of democracy in the Middle East, is it not a severe double standard that the Palestinians have no rights as a people, remain under brutal occupation and have no control over their water, land or even homes, which can be demolished, and are, without redress?
And how can America maintain this higher moral ground and preach its vision to the world when, under its watch, it tacitly approves the building of new settlements, the maintenance of old ones in the occupied territories, and allows the erection of an illegal wall that undercuts Palestinian villages, creates even new refugees, and serves as another humiliation to the Palestinian people among the myriad of other injustices?
SECRETARY POWELL: The President has been engaged since the very first day of his Administration trying to find a way forward and to move out of this crisis situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The President was the first President to go before the United States General Assembly two years ago and call publicly for the creation of a Palestinian state called Palestine. In his speech on the 24th of June of 2002, he once again reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution, two nations living side by side in peace with each other, Palestine and the Jewish state of Israel.
He did more than that, though. He then laid down a marker that said there is an obligation that each side has to contribute to this process. We have to stop settlement activity. The President has made that clear to the Israeli side. We've got to get rid of the outposts. We have to make life better for the Palestinian people. We've got to have openings that allow them to get to places of work, places of education, hospitals, and so they have a thriving economy.
But we also said to the Palestinian side it is difficult for us to achieve this goal and to put this kind of pressure on the Israeli side as long as terrorism is seen as a legitimate political act on the part of Palestinians. It is not. It can't be. Not in this post-9/11 age.
And so we pressed the Palestinian side to abandon all support of terrorist activities, and also to deal with those organizations and individuals who continue to espouse terrorism as a way of solving the problem. Last year the President took a large political step, with political risk, when he put enough pressure on the Palestinian side for them to come forward with somebody who could be seen as a peacemaker, the new Prime Minister Abu Mazen. And we went to Aqaba. The President stood there with the new Prime Minister, King Abdullah of Jordan and with Prime Minister Sharon, and everybody committed to the roadmap and the President's vision.
Unfortunately, it didn't work because the Palestinians were unable -- and I put the blame squarely on Mr. Arafat -- Arafat was not willing to provide authority to Abu Mazen to take control of the security organizations and to go after terrorism and speak out against terrorism -- not to start a civil war of the Palestinian communities and the Palestinian Authority, but to start moving against terrorism.
And so Abu Mazen stepped down after a while, and now we have a new Prime Minister, Abu Alaa. We're working with him, we're working with the Israeli side, to get this moving again.
Three American emissaries just returned from the region: Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, Special Assistant to the President Eliot Abrams, and my Assistant Secretary for Middle East Affairs Bill Burns. And they'll be reporting to me this afternoon and to the President over the weekend on what the prospects are now.
We are anxious to see Prime Minister Sharon meet with Prime Minister Abu Alaa to get this going. And as you heard from Prime Minister Sharon yesterday, he knows we have to move forward, and the roadmap is the way to move forward, and he is starting to take some steps; for example, his proposal to take all of the settlements out of Gaza. We have to learn more about that. How does it affect the West Bank?
But the President has not lost his commitment to finding a solution, has not stepped back from his vision, and has publicly spoken about settlement activity that has to stop, a better life for the Palestinian people, and we want a state for the Palestinian people.
And it is one of the most difficult accounts, if I can call it that, that we have to work on, and I've been immersed in it since my first day as Secretary of State. But it is an area that we need to keep pressing on and keep working on in order to find a solution, because it has such a effect, not only right there but throughout the whole region, throughout the Arab world, throughout the Muslim world. And so we will continue to work and the President will continue to work toward the goal that he put before the United Nations and the goal and the vision that he had in his 24 June speech, and that is to create a Palestinian state, a sovereign state called Palestine, living side by side in peace with the Jewish state of Israel. That is the only possible solution to this crisis, and we will continue to work for it.
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