Tourism Minister Angers Sharon By Dismissing ‘Road Map’ to Peace

JTA - Global Jewish News ^ | 5.7.2003 | Matthew E. Berger

[NYC GOP Chick]

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Tourism minister angers Sharon
by dismissing ‘road map’ to peace

By Matthew E. Berger

WASHINGTON, May 7 (JTA) — Benny Elon may sit in the Israeli Cabinet, but you wouldn’t know it from the message he brought to Washington this week.

While Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has publicly welcomed the “road map” toward Israeli-Palestinian peace — while making clear his concerns about the plan — Elon, the tourism minister, was making the rounds blasting the road map and offering his own, radically different approach.

Elon, a leader of the far-right National Union Party, met in Washington this week with some lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), as well as evangelical Christian leaders.

A spokesman for Elon said he was on official tourism business, including efforts to get the State Department to downgrade the travel warning currently in place on visits to Israel.

But he also has been speaking out against the “road map” crafted by the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia. The plan was officially presented last week to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Elon has been advocating his own peace plan, which would make Jordan — which already has a majority Palestinian population — into the Palestinian state.

Elon was unavailable for comment Wednesday, as he was cutting short his visit to return to Israel.

The “Elon Peace Initiative” calls for dismantling the Palestinian Authority, resettling Palestinian refugees in Jordan, offering economic assistance to Jordan and ending Palestinian terrorism against Israel.

His party also has recommended “transferring” Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan.

Sharon chastised Elon earlier this week, saying it is inappropriate for a member of the government to speak out against government policy while traveling on state business.

“This causes severe damage to the state,” Sharon said, “especially when we are talking about a minister who is supposed to be representing the positions of the government.”

Sharon has publicized its concerns about the road map, but he has tried to work them out with the Bush administration because of Bush’s strong support for Israel.

Most significantly, Sharon has agreed to meet with the new Palestinian Authority prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

Some Israeli officials and U.S. Jewish leaders and are concerned that Elon’s comments could alienate administration officials who back the road map.

Elon traveled to Washington repeatedly after becoming tourism minister following the assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi in October 2001, until his party left Sharon’s first government a year later. He returned to the ministry after Sharon formed a new government this spring.

Some say Elon’s goal is to foster an independent support base in the United States.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), who met with Elon on Tuesday, said Elon didn’t speak about the road map.

However, Berkley said she shared her own concerns about the plan. She added that she doesn’t consider it problematic for Israeli Cabinet ministers to express viewpoints different from their government’s.

“I don’t see the official Israeli government embracing the road map either,” she said. “Members of the American Congress are smart enough to know what is the official viewpoint of the Israeli government.”

[NYC GOP Chick]

Hmm...Sharon getting outflanked from the right... ;)

[NYC GOP Chick]

FYI: I thought you might be interested in passing this along to your ping list. :)

[onedoug]

I'm essentially with Elon.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Essentially?! As much as I love Arik Sharon, I think Elon should be PM! :)

[dennisw]

Elon is doing Sharon's work for him. Sharon is not stupid...He's been fighting Jew killers since 1950 and knows what the score is. But has to do this bllsht song and dance on the international stage. Elon is under no such constraints.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Oh, I know that, but I still like to hear it said aloud. :)

[onedoug]

By "essentially", I mean I'm a little softer on the matter of "transfer".

Anyone and everyone with any demonstrable ties to terror would go for sure (unless killed or locked-up). Anyone wishing to remain (and there would be many) should then be compelled to swear a loyalty oath to the Jewish state.

Otherwise, I'm actually in "perfect" accord with Elon.

[AmericaUnited]

I'm with Elon 100%

[NYC GOP Chick]

My problem with your idea is two-fold:

1) Any so-called palis who remain would likely have to become Israeli citizens and since these people do nothing but shoot out whelps like some defective salad shooter (when they're not strapping on bomb belts and vests), it wouldn't take long for them to become a majority -- and that would mean the end of Israel as we know it, as it would become yet another fetid, Arab terrorist-supporting state.

2) Since the rest of the Middle East is pretty much off-limits to Jews, why should these (alleged) people have the right to set up squatters' rights wherever they please?

[onedoug]

You might re-read my post. Agreeably driven by necessity of eliminating the enemy within, there is yet the danger that Israel could to much come to resemble what it abhors. Of non-Jews born there, there certainly must be some who would rather live under democracy than Arab tyranny and despotism. We would lose our link to God by losing our humanity in not recognizing that.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Are you referring to Israeli Arabs, who are already Israeli citizens (and would presumably remain so), or the so-called palis who are squatting in Judea and Samaria?

As for losing our humanity, I'd rather that than allow them to overrun and destroy Israel. If the squatters get to become Israeli citizens, they will have accomplished a significant goal -- the so-called "right of return." And that is wholly unacceptable.

Also, why no outrage about the fact that there is no Arab country in which Jews are welcome?

[onedoug]

You're picking a fight with an ally.

Judea and Samaria are Eretz Yisrael. As is Gamla.

Gaza? Hmm. The Philistia of old....

God. The Jews. Israel. Judeo-Christian America.

Choseness.

Humanity.

"Sh'ma Yisrael. Adonai elohenu. Adonai echad!"

Oneness without faith? Reward: land; beyond, unearned?

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SJackson]

Thanks for the ping. Actually Elon's plan doesn't call for forced transfer, other than terrorists who whould be imprisoned or expelled.

It grants Israel sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

It recognizes Jordan, not the PA which will be dissolved, as the Palestinian peoples sole representative.

Arabs living peacefully within Israel could remain, however they would be Jordanian, not Israeli, citizens. Subsidies might be available from the international community to relocate in Jordan for those who wished, where presumably the refugees currently in Jordan would be resettled.

The refugees in Syria and Lebanon could be more problematical depending on the cooperation of those countries.

The Elon Peace Plan: Both Sides of the Jordan

[SJackson]

Of course it has one major flaw from the Arab perspective. Although Arabs could live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza under Elon's plan, owing their allegiance to Jordan rather than Israel, Jews would live there too and that's a deal breaker.

[FreeReporting]

Who knows better about RoadMaps than people in charge of Tourism?