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.
I didn't mean to sound condescending toward you personally, I am 100% in agreement with your assessment, and was before GW was anointed, by the elite. We could have won with about any candidate after 8 years of Clinton, but we were given a One Worlder, and told to like it.
OPEC is an illegal price fixing monopoly that in effect is imposing an embargo on us, which is an act of war. Kissinger helped this along by suggesting to the Shaw of Iran he should raise oil prices to build his army up as we seemed a little reluctant to support him in that endeavor.
God help us, and if you believe Revelation, then we need not worry.
Here is a clip I ran across this morning sort of says it all, and makes me wonder about all the conservatives on this forum that push evolution, to the extent of absolute insult to believers.
“The intelligensia,” writes Lee Harris in Policy Review, “Has no idea of the consequences that would ensue if Middle America lost its simple faith in God and its equally simple trust in its fellow men. Their plain virtues and homespun beliefs are the bedrock of decency and integrity in our nation and in the world.”
You don't seriously think Condi's the one setting the policy here, do you?
yes...and...yes.
But to expand on my post to you...yes I am disappointed that Pres Bush called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Did I react the same way when Hillary called for the same thing? I did, but I expected it of her. Besides she wasn't Pres of the US at the time and I knew/ know that she would say anything she thought might ingratiate her with her audience, or that might grab her an extra vote.
Pres Bush when he was courting the Jewish vote during his first term was very supportive of Israel. He's in his 2nd term now so I guess the courtship is over.
What is up with THAT!? Why is Condi so blasted unilateral about all this?
Why is Rice bullying Israel? They need encouragement and support. The entire nation of Israel is upset.
Rice just cooked her goose if she thought she had any chance at President.
Condi is now "fluffed Rice".
Didn't the Palies fire on an American ship this morning? Oh, well, that doesn't matter. Who cares about a little thing like that. (I don't have much faith in Rice being as forceful with Abbas and his gang of thugs.)
Not at all. She needs to shut her big mouth and leave Israel alone. I am losing respect for this woman. She's being used by the devil to divide Israel, IMO. Cheez.
Me, too. They both need to read the scriptures concerning Israel. Divide it and we're toast.
I'm with you completely. This is a horrifying disgrace and I am ashamed of my vote for Bush. I supported him, believed all of his tough talk about hunting down terrorists and killing them, making it so they have no safe haven. Remember his speech to Congress a week after 9/11 when he told, promised, the nation that terrorists and the governments that support them will be considered hostile? Well, here is our wake up call, because it appears to me that he is full of fecal matter.
I'm so mad, ashamed, embarrassed, disgusted, etc., that I swallowed all the talk hook, line, and sinker.
What we are witnessing is the suicide of the West.
Outside of the Israeli areas, Gaza is already a slum. In twelve months it will be Mogadishu.
"http://israelreporter.com/2005/08/18/inn-rice-promises-arabs-more-jewish-deportations/"
Thanks for sending me this link. Sorry took a few days to respond to post. It's all sad and disgusting.
You think big and think accurately.
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."
Sorry took a few days for me to respond. I hope we indeed do this. My thoughts were synthetic refineries for biofules using corn, sugar cane, etc. Build them in the midwest and power the conversion with nuclear plants. The excess power could be channeled elsewhere. Been saying this to people in our government for years. We should have done this after 911. The good news is that the Bush Administration is pushing nuclear energy now. About damn time.
Excellent idea! (which means, sadly, that our government will probably never do it). I'm trying to imagine the new nonsense of the Left this would inspire: they will argue that freeing ourselves from oil imports will be "unfair" to the third world countries that rely upon oil for their children.
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