Posted on 08/06/2002 8:29:34 PM PDT by Nachum
"There is no question" the Palestinian Authority has been involved with terrorist activities, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday, echoing the core message of President George W. Bush's June 24 Middle East address. He added he doubted Israel could transfer territory to such an entity.
It would be different "if you are giving it to an entity that has a track record," he said.
Rumsfeld spoke during a question-and-answer session with military and civilian workers, as senior PA officials headed to Washington after consultations with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer Monday night about a proposed phased Israeli pullback from PA-run areas.
Yesterday, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat conferred with advisers on Israel's idea of an initial pullback from the Gaza Strip should the PA clamp down on terror.
"There were no agreements reached," an Israeli official said of Ben-Eliezer's talks. "The ball right now is in the Palestinians' court. They have to decide whether or not they are willing to make an agreement and stop the terror and the violence.
"We are willing to do a lot to meet their needs, to lift the restrictions, open roads, allow workers in. But all this is contingent upon them upholding their side of the deal."
The official described the "Gaza first" plan as a "pilot project." Under it, Israel would ease restrictions in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a cessation of violence, and then apply the model to other cities.
The idea was received coolly by the PA delegation, which said it would prefer to see troops first pull back from Ramallah, from which Arafat has been running PA affairs.
Ben-Eliezer said that the Gaza Strip could be followed by similar arrangements in Hebron and Bethlehem.
PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo doubted the effectiveness of the plan. "It's not logical and not possible that a withdrawal take place in one location, while in another the killing and destruction is still going on," he said.
The talks were suddenly overshadowed by Rumsfeld's comments, the timing and nature of which were unusual.
He appeared to be speaking off the cuff, something senior US officials rarely do when they are discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rumsfeld also usually defers answering questions about the conflict, saying it is the purview of the State Department.
Nevertheless, he strongly took issue with the Arab claim that the West Bank is "occupied" territory that should be handed over to Palestinian control. He also declined to call on Israel to abandon settlements.
The Bush administration, like previous administrations, has called the more than 200,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza an "obstacle to peace."
"My feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war," Rumsfeld said. "Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started. They all jumped in and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel, because Israel prevailed in the conflict," Rumsfeld said.
Since then, Rumsfeld said, Israel repeatedly has offered to pull back but "at no point has it been agreed upon by the other side."
While Bush has pledged to help create a Palestinian state within three years, Rumsfeld only said "there will be some sort of an entity that will be established," which Israel can deal with securely.
The remarks were certain to please Israel and sting Arab states, which have been lobbying for a US plan for achieving statehood.
The PA delegation that left yesterday includes Interior Minister Abdel Razak al-Yahya, who also oversees security, cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, and Trade and Economics Minister Maher al-Masri.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved the Gaza-first plan, while Hamas rejected the idea and said it would continue to resist "occupation."
Present in the security talks Monday night, along with Yahya, were Arafat security adviser Muhammad Dahlan and PA Intelligence chief Amin el-Hindi.
A Palestinian source said Ben-Eliezer could hold an additional meeting with PA security officials while Yahya is in Washington this week.
The delegation is due to meet with senior US officials including Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tomorrow and Friday. The talks are expected to focus on PA security reform and proposed new PA elections early next year.
"The Americans are very interested in the idea of establishing a cease-fire in a local area and then trying to expand it," one diplomatic source in Washington said. "They want to do it now, particularly because they feel they are behind in outlining a security reform plan. It's the only thing they actually have and they think something can be done there."
US officials would like to see some progress on reform ahead of an international meeting in Paris on August 22. That meeting will follow up a similar recent gathering in London when the international community established seven task forces to nudge along different areas of reform.
Hamas officials said they are skeptical that the PA would be able to implement the security plan without entering a confrontation with it.
"It would not be in the PA's interest to crack down on Hamas... since the movement is very well organized and has a lot of public support in Gaza," one PA source said. The PA must try to bring it under its control through an agreement, convincing Hamas that halting attacks is in the Palestinians' national interest, he added.
The PA also faces problems implementing security in the West Bank, where the Preventive Security Service has been paralyzed ever since Arafat decided to fire its leader Jibril Rajoub. PPS members are boycotting the newly appointed leader Zuhair Mawasra, demanding that either one of their local leaders replace Rajoub or that Arafat reinstate him.
Talk of a phased withdrawal an idea that comes up every several months but is usually scuttled by terror attacks was accompanied yesterday by murmurs that Israel is preparing plans to reconstitute its civil administration in the West Bank, if necessary.
Under the Oslo Accords, that civil administration began to be dismantled. Coordinator of activities in the West Bank and Gaza Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad, stressed however that there are no plans to fully reoccupy the West Bank, but only to maintain a temporary presence to fight terror.
All of this is the heritage of names for the male genitalia in one language after another.
Looks like "If you've got it, flaunt it!" was not the view in antiquity.
And the name of Abigail's husband was Nabal. How quaint...
Rather, should we strive to individually convey the Good as I believe always has, does and will my country.
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