Posted on 08/18/2005 4:21:25 PM PDT by Alouette
As Israel struggled Thursday to evacuate the Gush Katif settlements, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it must take further steps.
"Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing," she said in an interview with The New York Times. But, she added, "It cannot be Gaza only."
Rice said this is "really quite a dramatic moment in the history of the Middle East," and praised Sharon for proving himself "enormously courageous."
According to the Times, Rice said that while the withdrawal would take several weeks, Israel must take further steps soon afterward, including loosening travel restrictions in the West Bank and withdrawing from more Palestinian cities.
She also said the Palestinian Authority must disarm Hamas. "That is their obligation under the road map," she said.
Rice's comments prompted Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, a disengagement opponent, to call on Sharon to hold an emergency cabinet discussion on the matter.
"Rice's comments prove there is no basis to the prime minister's statement that there will not be an additional disengagement," he said.
"To my dismay, the unilateral evacuation of settlements from Gaza and northern Samaria creates a dangerous precedent which endangers the legitimacy of Israeli settlement in Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and neighborhoods in east Jerusalem," Katz said.
But a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office warned against blowing Rice's words "out of proportion."
The official said that whereas some would automatically want to interpret her words as evidence that the US would now begin pressuring Israel to begin a second stage of disengagement, this was not what she said.
He said Rice was interested in seeing the implementation of the security plan put together by her envoy, Lt.-Gen. William Ward, which called for Israel to transfer control of the West Bank cities to the PA, but which Israel halted because of security considerations.
The official said Israel would transfer the cities to the PA when the security situation on the ground would make such a step possible. Furthermore, he repeated the government's well-known position that Israel would move ahead with the road map when the Palestinians fulfilled their obligations under the plan, first and foremost the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure.
Some officials in Jerusalem have warned in recent weeks that once disengagement was complete, the US would once again begin pressuring Israel to remove the unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank. The US backed off of this issue in recent months, so as not to create any additional domestic problems for Sharon as he was gearing up for disengagement.
While Rice said she expected Israel to take further steps immediately, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam that Gaza would serve as a "model," and if the PA dismantled the terrorist infrastructure and "peace and quiet reign in the region, we will be able to move forward and return to the road map."
But, he said in comments published Thursday, "If Gaza turns into a base for shooting missiles at Israel and increasing Palestinian attacks, it will be impossible to move on to another step and take a new risk."
During the interview with the paper, conducted in Shalom's office on Wednesday, he said Israel was now expecting Palestinian "actions," not excuses. He said Israel was focused on the day after disengagement, and waiting to see whether the PA would rise to the occasion and – when it gains control of Gaza – dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and govern responsibly.
Shalom said PA Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's first order of business after disengagement should be to arrest Hamas activists. "Abbas should do this not to protect Israel, but to safeguard his own power," he said.
Shalom's interview with the Kuwaiti paper was one of four interviews he gave key Arabic media outlets over the last two days to signal to the Arab world that the disengagement momentum should be seized upon, and that Israel was serious about peace.
He told the Kuwaiti paper that Gaza would not become a "prison," and that negotiations with the Palestinians regarding border crossings and safe passage were ongoing.
Asked about the long-disrupted peace talks with Syria, and whether Israel would be willing to give up the settlements in the Golan Heights as it did in Gaza, Shalom said: "Every party can come to the negotiation table with the topics they want, and we have to talk about everything."
AP contributed to this report.
Don't have time to go back now, but it wouldn't be the first time I've misunderstood a post.
e-1 now
This won't make us any new friends. We will risk one, at this rate.
At one time I thought she was brilliant - what a dumb sh[t I turned out to be! America is going to pay a very heavy price for helping these terrorists subjugate Gods people.
"4. casting the war as one against terrorism rather than against militant Islam.
Terrorism is a means by which our enemy is fighting the war; it is not the enemy. His repeated uterances of "religion of peace" have not been helpful to force us to see the true enemy in this battle of civilizations."
This is the biggest blunder. Too much PC about what the arabs "think". After 911 the response as you mentioned was awsome and justified. Even Iraq to me was a gamble but one that could pay long-term dividends. I told my business partner just after 911 the smartest thing to do would be to invest 1 trillion dollars into nuclear plants and synthetic biodiesels. Then you can dictate whatever policy you want instead of kissing ass to the wrong people.
I'm sure there were quite a few people who thought disengagement was a good idea in Birmingham, AL. They'd have gladly "empathized" with you, Dr. Rice.
Sharon has proven himself to be a puppet. Do not expect any future courageous acts from him. He is bought and paid for.
I have had a similar thought. Since we do not have the political will in this country to fully take advantage of our own oil resources, the best approach for the West (including Israel) would be to invest in technology to produce a cheap alternative source of energy to oil. This would leave the Arabs with useless oceans of gooey black substance that no one wanted.
You are right: PC is killing us.
I just read the amazing article by Taylor Caldwell on your homepage. I would recommend that everyone read it.
A great post!
So many horrible images from the past were aroused today.
Jews being torn out of their homes and synagogues. Pogroms perpetrated by jackbooted thugs...but this time, they also are Jews...not Cossacks, not Nazis.
The secularists want to destroy any nation based on Judaism or Christianity. The Israeli ambassadors on TV today spat out the word "Theocracy" as a pejorative against the resisters and their rabbis.
Some of the images today could have been from the "evacuation" of the Warsaw ghetto sixty-some years ago.
It's more than a disappointment. It causes doubt over the whole agenda.
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan.
The camel could wind up headless..
Amen. When told by agitated Arabists at State that the Israelis destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor, RR was said to have replied "Well, boys will be boys!"
Was it a terrible disappointment to you when the President became the first American President to actually officially call for a Palestinian state?
Were you riotously indignant when Hillary called for the same thing, during the Clinton tenure?
Two men's opinions.
Nam Vet
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