Posted on 07/22/2004 8:46:30 AM PDT by anotherview
Solana (right) and Shalom today in Jerusalem (Foreign Ministry photo). EU says it would reconsider position on PA if Abu Ala resigns
After meeting FM Shalom in Jerusalem, EU foreign affairs chief Solana says if Abu Ala ends up just as Abu Mazen, conclusions could be drawn.
Gil Horev
If Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei (Abu Ala) resigns we would have to reconsider our position regarding the Palestinian Authority, European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana has stated.
During a press conference he held with Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom after a joint meeting this (Thursday) afternoon in Jerusalem, Solana said, “If Abu Ala ends his job as Palestinian Prime Minister, just as Abu Mazen had done, the EU would have to reconsider its position regarding the Palestinian Authority”.
Solana’s meeting with Shalom came two days after the UN General Assembly voted against Israel regarding the issue of the security barrier. 150 nations, including those from the EU, endorsed the Palestinian call to adopt the decision reached by the International Court of Justice in The Hague by which the barrier violates international law.
According to Solana, the EU recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself. However, he stressed that the EU objects to the barrier’s current route which “expropriates land and violates international law”.
“I know the barrier has saved many Israeli lives but it would have done the same thing if it were build on Israel’s territory”, he added.
Shalom expressed his disappointment over the vote made by the EU nations at the UN. “I find it difficult to persuade the Israeli public that the EU is a friend and a partner that can be trusted in its advancement of Israel’s goals”, he said.
Solana responded by saying, “There isn’t a single nation in Europe that is against Israel. Our position regarding the fence was known in the past. Besides, we were not the only countries that endorsed The Hague ruling – 150 others did so”.
(2004-07-22 18:04:25.0)
Their ongoing hypocrisy is also prety amazing. The 1949 armistice line, the so-called Green Line, is not a border nor has it even been recognized as one. The border, according to the UN's own resolution 242, is to be determined by negotiation. Therefore, Mr. Solana can't possibly know if the security fence is on Israeli territory, Palestinian territory, a bit of both, or precisely on a future border.
The last recognized broder, determined by a 1919 treaty between Great Britain (the mandatory power at the time) and King Feisal of Transjordan and Iraq, is actually the Jordan River. That being said, isn't the fence entirely on Israeli territory until a revised border is agreed upon?
You and I have disagreed on many occasions. I have to say, though, that on your post above you stated the issue beautifully, simply and straightforwardly.
Thank you for the nice compliment. I think we have always shared the same goal: Israel safe and secure with it's own borders and an end to violence. What we have disagreed upon is the best way to get there.
What I think some people also failed to realize is that my views on Judea and Samaria, which are the heart of Biblical and historical Jewish lands, filled with sites holy to the Jewish people, and where there was a Jewish presence throughout the centuries, are very different from my views on Gaza.
Yes you got it exactly right.
And beyond your exactitude, what amazes me most of all not that how the EU ignores your simple logic, but how the EU's position is opposed to a negotiated settlement. By predetermining that the fence is "built on Arab land" they are attempting to impose their own idea of where the border should be on the parties - which of course means they are not an "honest broker" but a party to the negotiations themselves!
Their attempt to call it "arab land" flies in the face of their responsibilities in the Quartet and their prior statements in support of a negotiated settlement between the two parties.
It also amazes me how the EU has hitched onto Arafat's star even as it falls into the abyss below. As if the 4 years of violence, incitement, terrorism, which comes on the heels of a lifetime of international terror and hate!, weren't enough to make the EU 'reconsider' their position on the PLO (oh, excuse me, PA). No, they have to contrive some hoey palloy about well, if this time he doesn't reform, we'll have to reconsider. What nonsense! I am sick of these fools in the EU but I am confident in the knowlege that their lack of vision, forsight, ethics, morality and plain common sense will bring them their just desserts.
All of this is true. We have a genuine border with Canada. Israel has no such borders because Mohammedans will never concede Jews ruling a land that was once Mohammedan ruled And 242 means negotiations for peace with the Paleostinians getting land but not necessarily all the land of Gaza and the West Bank. 242 was written when the 1967 war was fresher on peoples minds........ and people knew that Israel justly seized the territories in a war after being raided and terrorized from them for years. Israel also now had the WB and Gaza as buffer zones against Arab armies
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