Posted on 03/04/2008 5:01:05 AM PST by SJackson
Rice to focus on Gaza-Egypt border
The Palestinian Authority is expecting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to provide it with a "face-saving device" that will allow it to return to negotiations with Israel, according to assessments in Jerusalem on the eve of Rice's visit.
US Secretary of State Rice to visit the region
Rice is scheduled to arrive at noon Tuesday, after spending some five hours in Egypt. The prevalent feeling in Jerusalem is that despite the recent flare-up in Gaza, her discussions in Cairo will focus on securing an agreement between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas regarding the border situation. Such an agreement, according to this assessment, would be the incentive to get the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas suspended talks with Israel on Sunday because of the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
According to official assessments in Jerusalem, the PA does not want to call off the negotiations, if for no other reason than continuing talks is the only card it holds.
"Without the negotiations, the Palestinian Authority doesn't have anything," one senior government official said. "The fact is that the international community pledged billions of dollars to them in Paris because of [the PA's] commitment to Annapolis and negotiations. If they stop the negotiations, they will lose that international support, and without that, they have nothing - they don't have Gaza, and they barely have control of the West Bank."
According to this official, the IDF's surprise pullout from Gaza on Monday was timed to coincide with Rice's visit, in order to give her an opportunity to try to work out some kind of border agreement.
When Rice's visit was first planned several weeks ago, it was expected to focus on two main issues: coming up with some kind of security regimen on the Gaza-Egypt border following the breach there in January, and pushing the diplomatic process with the Palestinians forward.
The intensified fighting in Gaza, however, threatened to change the focus of her talks completely.
"The fact that we stopped the military action allows her to go back to the original aims, to address an agreement on Rafah," the official said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at a meeting with the foreign diplomatic corps in Jerusalem Monday, stressed that the IDF leaving Gaza Monday morning did not mean that Israel's actions there were over.
Indeed, Livni - who also met Monday with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana - indicated that the military operation's goals were not only to stop the rocket fire, but - even more importantly - to halt Hamas's arms buildup and weaken its hold on Gaza.
Livni said that any decision the government took on how to deal with Gaza would be based on the following objectives: providing security for Israeli citizens, harming Hamas militarily, and hurting the organization diplomatically.
"Those who control Gaza are responsible for what happens there. We will not play by their rules, we will change the game whereby they decide when to attack, when to stop and for how long... We will decide when to stop our actions. That the soldiers left Gaza today... is not the end of our activity against terror in Gaza, which will continue," she said.
The security cabinet is expected to meet Wednesday and discuss the army's overall objectives in the Strip.
"We need to attack [Hamas's] infrastructure, the places where weapons are made and the terrorists themselves. But that's not enough. Anyone who wants to solve the terrorist problem from Gaza needs to prevent Hamas's buildup," Livni said.
Livni alluded to the fact that the results of Israel's actions in Gaza would have wider ramifications, echoing the position of Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, head of military intelligence, who said at Sunday's cabinet meeting that Iran, Syria and Hizbullah were carefully watching the situation in Gaza.
"No one has an interest in Hamas's success expect for Iran, Syria and Hizbullah," Livni said. "Its success is not a matter of reality, but also one of perception."
Livni added that the regional players could not accept a spin of a Hamas victory - not Abbas, not Israel, and not the moderate Arab states.
In Washington, meanwhile, a State Department official said the US "wants to see negotiations resume, and we believe it's important that the parties continue to try to work through the Annapolis process to achieve the results that they've committed themselves to."
The official said Rice would be making it clear that Hamas must stop the rocket attacks, which hurt the Palestinian people as well as Israelis.
Earlier Monday, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the US would use the visit to stress the decision that is now facing the Palestinians.
"We have a clear message: The Palestinian people have a choice to make. It's a choice between terrorism, or a choice between a political solution that leads to a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel," he said.
He also had harsh words for Hamas, whom he blamed for the fighting. "The number one thing that has to happen is that Hamas has got to stop targeting Israeli citizens with rockets," he said.
When asked if Israel's response to the Gaza rocket fire had been disproportionate in the eyes of the US, Johndroe responded, "We obviously don't want any innocent civilians to lose their lives, but I think that started with these rockets that have been fired from Gaza into Israel, recently killing and injuring Israeli citizens in some of their bigger cities."
He described the situation as being "escalated" by Hamas to "firing larger rockets longer-range and killing people. That's got to stop," he aid.
Livni, meanwhile, said before her meeting with Solana that "these were not easy days for Israeli citizens. Israel is in the midst of a struggle against terrorism and will continue in this war against terror."
The foreign minister said that Israel expected the international community to support its war against terror and "show determination" in delegitimizing terrorist organizations, first and foremost - Hamas.
Livni's comments came even as Italy's foreign minister called on Israel to negotiate with Hamas to bring about a cease-fire.
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Rice: ME peace still possible in 2008
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she will work toward resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as soon as possible, saying Hamas is trying to wreck chances for the peace process.
Rice made the comments after talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on a stopover before heading to Israel, trying to rescue peace talks after an IDF offensive that killed more than 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel launched the offensive to stop rocket attacks by Hamas on nearby Israeli cities, but the assault prompted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend negotiations.
"There has to be an active peace process that can withstand the efforts of rejectionists to keep peace from being made, the people who are firing rockets do not want peace," Rice told reporters in Cairo. "They sow instability, that is what Hamas is doing."
Rice backed Israel's right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid causing civilian casualties.
"The rocket attacks against innocent Israelis in their cities need to stop. This can't go on. No Israeli government can tolerate that," she said. But the Israelis "need to be aware of the effects of those operations on innocent people."
She said Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last July, is armed "in part" by Iran and underlined the need for the United States and the West to train and develop the PA security forces loyal to Abbas, whose government controls the West Bank.
"Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and if nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authoritiy security forces. That's not a very good situation," she said at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
On her way to the Middle East, Rice said she still thinks the two sides can reach a deal for Palestinian statehood this year.
"I do think that negotiations ought to resume as soon as possible," Rice told reporters on her plane. "I understand that the situation has been complicated. But the longer the negotiations are not ongoing or the longer that they are suspended, if that's what one wants to call it, the more it is a victory for those who don't want to see a two-state solution."
Rice declined to call for a cease-fire, which many Israelis think would legitimize Hamas and its hold in Gaza. The Mediterranean coastal strip is the smaller, poorer of two Arab tracts that would form an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Egypt's Aboul Gheit, whose country has sought to isolate Hamas, also stopped short of calling for a cease-fire. He said Egypt was seeking to convince Israel "not to resort to excessive use of force ... The imbalance of power (between Hamas and the Israelis) must be taken into account." He said Egypt also urges the Palestinians to halt rocket fire.
Israel said it wants to continue negotiations, but suggested it also may launch a full-scale re-invasion of the Gaza territory it abandoned three years ago in a first step toward ending defensive occupation of lands the Palestinians claim for the state.
The goal of two side-by-side states anytime soon has looked far from reach in recent days as an Israeli civilian died from militant rocket fire and more than 100 Palestinians died in the Israeli offensive. Violence and protests spilled over from Gaza to the larger, more stable West Bank, where Rice was due later Tuesday.
The moderate U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank suspended peace talks in protest, and gave no date for return. That made restoring two-way talks Rice's chief objective for a trip she had planned to check up on the negotiators' progress.
In Egypt, Rice was also asking President Hosni Mubarak and other officials for help controlling Gaza's small border with Egypt, site of a border breach in January that became something of a public relations coup for Hamas. Some Israeli military analysts think the more sophisticated longer-range rockets fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon in recent days probably came into Gaza during the week that fences with Egypt were down.
Rice was also looking for ways to speed aid into Gaza, sealed off for months as Israel tries to punish Hamas and break its rule. She said proposals from Egypt and the Palestinians to reopen a monitored border crossing point have merit.
Gaza and the Palestinian leadership split that underlies the crisis are the largest potential deal-killers for Bush's goal to sign a peace treaty before the close of his term in January. The crisis comes on top of the usual list of obstacles that have spiked previous peace attempts.
Photographs of dead and injured Palestinian children blanketed Arab media on Sunday and Monday amid stern international warnings to Israel to avoid what Palestinians and others say is the indiscriminate killing of civilians. Israel pulled its forces out of the territory Monday even as Israel's defense chief warned that a larger assault may be in the offing.
Arab outrage over Israel's offensive in Gaza threatened to swamp what promise remained in the peace framework that Bush launched with international backing last fall. The talks have featured regular secret meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators but no public breakthroughs. Israeli housing activity, Palestinian militant violence and police inaction already had undermined confidence on both sides following the celebratory mood of Bush's November peace conference at Annapolis, Md.
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ME peace still possible in 2008...Hamas is trying to wreck chances for the peace process. .
Someone needs to tell Condi that Hamas is/are palestinians. They're the elected government of the whole darn peaceful state she's creating, in control of 30-40% of the population, and in the view of most observers including Gen. Dayton will control the rest if Israel leaves. They're not businessmen as you claimed a couple years ago. Time for the naiveté to end. Hamas should never have been allowed in the government. The beginning of todays problems
A Pro-Hamas Foreign Policy?-Why is Washington urging terrorists to run for elective office?Secretary Rice on CNN: US will respect elections if Hamas wins
White House: OK if Hamas controls PLC- "business professionals...not terrorists"
White House: Hamas members elected in PA not terrorists
She is officially nuts!!! First we send them millions of $$$$ now we are going to equip and train the terrorists....
Here's an idea. We tell then, stop the protest or we stop the funding. your CHOICE. Better yet we stop the funding and tell them if you ever want funding from us again you will act civilized and stop supporting terrorists.
Congress did that with Egypt, the administration waived the requirements. U.S. waived congressional restriction on Egypt aid. Arms smuggling to terrorists in Gaza is in our national interest
As usual, I will pray Rice fails.
What Livni should have said :
General William Tecumseh Sherman
to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta (adapted)
(snip)
You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.
But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If Israel submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Europe, which is eternal war.
Once admit to peace, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may.
You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Gaza can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war.
Now that war comes to you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent rockets and bombs and molded shells and shot, to carry war into Sderot and Ashkelon, to desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of their inheritance.
But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect an early success.
But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.
W.T. Sherman, Major-General commanding
What is that woman smoking?
Little chance she will “fail” because there is no way to measure success.
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