USA insists Israel "accept" roadmap which "Palestinians" have already "accepted".

The U.S. administration is demanding Israel formally accept the road map to a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so that it does not appear to be recalcitrant trying to delay advancing the political process.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, attorney Dov Weisglass met yesterday with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in an effort to find a formula that would enable Israel to accept the plan, while taking into account its comments and reservations about it. Rice also meant with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, who is in Washington for parallel talks with administration officials.

Meanwhile, reports in the U.S. press say President George W. Bush is considering inviting Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to a three-way summit in Geneva, possibly next week, when Bush is attending a G8 summit. The New York Times reported yesterday morning that Bush is also considering a Middle East trip, to promote his peace plan, but Israeli and American officials downplayed the idea, saying it would not be likely if the president was not certain of achieving progress during the trip.

As reported last night by Channel Two news, the U.S. administration has reversed its position in the last two days. Until now, the Americans have been saying there is no importance to a formal acceptance of the plan, and that the important thing is to start its implementation on the ground.

But the Palestinians have insisted that they won't start acting against terror until Israel declares its formal acceptance of the road map. The issue was at the heart of the meeting between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting last Saturday night.

U.S. President George W. Bush told Sharon on Tuesday that it is important to proceed with the political process according to the road map. American officials told senior Israeli officials that they are under heavy pressure from Arab countries to make Israel accept the road map. They made clear that the issue of "acceptance" not become an obstacle to its implementation, giving the Palestinians an excuse not to act against the terror groups. The administration has also rejected Israel's distinction between Bush's June 24 speech and the road map meant to implement it.

The road map, which was formally presented to the sides on April 30, calls for a three-phase process: calming the situation on the ground; establishment of a Palestinian state in provisional borders; and a permanent agreement by 2005. Israel has accepted the phases in principle, but has presented many reservations about the specifics of the plan, starting with a demand the process begin with the Palestinians dropping their demand for the right of return of refugees to the country.

The road map puts the refugee issue in the third phase of the process, during the final status negotiations. Israel is also against the road map's predication on the Saudi Arabian initiative, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories captured in 1967. Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom have told the Americans that the road map, in its current form, could not pass the current government coalition.

The administration is also demanding that Sharon dismantle the illegal outposts in the West Bank, in a move that is clearly seen by the world, immediately after the next meeting between Sharon and Bush. But the administration has accepted an Israeli distinction being drawn between "illegal" outposts and "legal" ones. For Washington, the issue has become a matter of Sharon meeting his commitments.

Palestinian Violation of the Road Map:

I. "Cease All Violence"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map states: "In Phase 1 [May 2003], the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence."

What They Did During Week #2: During week #1, May 6 - May 12, 2003, there were at least 12 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks, in which 2 people were murdered and 5 were wounded:

May 6: Shooting attack near Achiyah; one murdered, two wounded, including a six-year old girl ... Three mortar rockets fired at Neve Dekalim.

May 7: Shots fired at Israeli soldiers in Gaza ... Seven mortar rockets fired at crowds celebrating Independence Day in Gush Katif.

May 8: Shots fired at Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

May 9: Shots fired at Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

May 10: Shots fired at Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

May 11: Shooting attack near Ofra; one murdered ... Katyusha rockets fired at Sderot; three wounded.

May 12: Shots fired at Israeli soldiers in Gaza ... Bomb planted near Rafah ... Suicide bomber intercepted in Shechem (Nablus) while preparing an attack.

II. "Call for Recognizing Israel and Ending Violence"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map obligates the Palestinian Arabs to "issue an unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere."

What They Did During Week #2: No such statement was issued by any Palestinian Arab leader. In his first speech as prime minister, delivered before the Palestinian Legislative Council on April 29, 2003, Abu Mazen made reference to "the need to end the Arab-Israeli conflict peacefully" but did not issue an unequivocal statement about Israel's right to exist in peace and security. Nearly all references to Israel in his speech referred to "Israeli aggression" and the like. Nor did Abu Mazen's speech call for an end to violence against Israelis anywhere; he said: "We denounce terrorism by any party and in all its shapes and forms both because of our religious and moral traditions and because we are convinced that such methods do not lend support to a just cause like ours, but rather destroy it." However, since Abu Mazen and other PA officials have never regarded the murder of Israelis as terrorism but rather as "legitimate resistance," his statement cannot be considered a call to Palestinian Arabs to stop murdering Israelis.

Moreover, as recently as March 3, 2003, Mazen told the newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the murder of Jews beyond the pre-1967 border is legitimate because it constitutes an act of opposition to "the occupation."

III. "Arrest, Disrupt, and Restrain Terrorists"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map obligates the Palestinian Arabs to "undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere."

What They Did During Week #2: There were no reports of any arrests of terrorists by the Palestinian Authority.

IV. "Confiscate Terrorists' Weapons"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map obligates the Palestinian Arabs to "commence confiscation of illegal weapons."

What They Did During Week #2: There were no reports of the PA seizing any terrorists' weapons. In his first speech as prime minister, delivered before the Palestinian Legislative Council on April 29, 2003, Abu Mazen said "the unauthorized possession of weapons, with its direct threat to the security of the population, is a major concern that will be relentlessly addressed." He did not say the weapons would be confiscated; he did not even call on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to surrender their weapons. Moreover, the phrase "unauthorized" provides a potential loophole, since the PA could "authorize" Hamas and Islamic Jihad to possess weapons.

V. "Dismantle the Terrorist Infrastructure"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map obligates the Palestinian Arabs to carry out the "dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

What They Did During Week #2: The PA did not outlaw Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, or any other terrorist groups; there were no reports of the PA shutting down any bomb factories or terrorists' training camps; the PA continued to ignore Israel's 45 requests for the extradition of terrorists; there were no reports of the PLO leadership punishing PLO factions that are engaged in terrorism, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

By contrast, on May 6, Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed an explosives lab in a village north of Shechem (Nablus).

VI. "End All Incitement"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map requires that "all official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

What They Did During Week #2: The PA's official newspapers, television, and radio continued to broadcast a steady stream of anti-Israel, anti-American, and pro-violence incitement, and PA officials continued to make inciting statements. In addition, there was no change in the PA's policy of inciting support for terror by publicly praising terrorists, naming streets after them, and paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and their families. Moreover, in his first speech as prime minister, delivered before the Palestinian Legislative Council on April 29, 2003, Abu Mazen called the terrorists imprisoned in Israel "heroes" and demanded that they be set free.

VII. "End Arab States' Support for Terror"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map states that during May 2003, "Arab states cut off public and private funding and all other forms of support for groups supporting and engaging in violence and terror."

What They Did During Week #2: There were no reports of any Arab states cutting off their support for Palestinian Arab terrorist groups.

VIII. "Consolidate Security Forces"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map obligates the Palestinian Arabs to undertake "consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption"; and "all Palestinian security organizations are consolidated into three services reporting to an empowered interior minister."

What They Did During Week #2: The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on May 5, 2003, that "five different PA security organizations, including Force 17 and the General Intelligence, remain under the direct command of Chairman Yasir Arafat" and have not been consolidated under the control of the Interior Minister. Military Intelligence, the National Security Forces, and the naval forces are also under Arafat's control. Only the remaining two security agencies are under the Interior Minister. Arafat's five are under the control of a newly-created agency, the National Security Council, chaired by Arafat and his close aide Hanni al-Hassan.

IX. "Institute Democratic Reforms"

What They Must Do During May 2003: The Road Map requires the Palestinian Arabs to undertake a number of steps to transform their brutal, corrupt dictatorial regime into a full-fledged democracy, including "action on a credible process to draft constitution for Palestinian statehood"; the holding of "free, open, and fair elections"; and "steps to achieve genuine separation of powers, including any necessary Palestinian legal reforms for this purpose."

What They Did During Week #2: No such steps have yet been taken.

God's road map Ben Shapiro (archive)

May 21, 2003

It is easy to blame America for the lack of Palestinian-Israeli peace. Critics from the left argue that America is biased in favor of Israel. Critics from the right argue that America has not allowed Israel to end the Palestinian terrorist regime on its borders.

It is easy to blame the Palestinians for the paucity of calm in the region. Palestinians incite their children to murder Jews. Palestinians encourage and celebrate homicide bombings. The Palestinian end goal is the destruction of the state of Israel.

It is also easy to blame the other Arab nations for the failure of the Middle East peace process. They fund Palestinian terror. They refuse to take in Palestinian refugees. They use Israel as a scapegoat for their own domestic problems.

But the cardinal blame for the Middle East conflict lies with Israel. Why? Because the other nations in the region despise Israel and wish it ill. Because the rest of the world condemns Israel if Israel so much as attempts to defend itself. And yet Israel chases after international praise rather than protecting its own citizenry by any means necessary.

Israel's apologies for its own existence can be directly linked to its ideological foundation. Israel was built by men who sought to separate religious Judaism from the concept of a Jewish state. They were socialists and secularists. They aspired to create an Israel that would take its place among the "family of nations," as the Israeli Declaration of Independence puts it. These secular Zionists were certainly heroes, but they built Israel on shaky ground from the beginning.

This was, and is, the problem for Israel. Israel still strives to be admitted to the "family of nations." Israeli leaders have still failed to realize that there is no family of nations, that the countries of the world have independent interests and values, and that they share no common vision.

Israel's secular Zionism has always provided the seeds of its destruction. Secular Zionism requires that Arab citizens of Israel be guaranteed equal rights. Even though many Arabs within Israel wish for Israel's obliteration and vote as such, Israel does nothing. In January, the Israeli Supreme Court overruled a Knesset ban on Arab Members of Parliament Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi, despite both Bishara's and Tibi's support for Palestinian suicide bombings. Israeli Arabs compose about 20 percent of Israel's population. Demographic trends indicate that within decades, Israeli Arabs will compose a voting majority in Israel, allowing them to vote the Jewish state out of existence. Secular Zionism will let it happen.

Israel's secular Zionism means accepting indefensible borders. The 1967 Pentagon Report, issued immediately following the Six-Day War, explains that Israeli security requires control over virtually all territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and even parts of the Sinai Desert. Yet Israel accepted United Nations Resolution 242 only months after the war. Once again, Israel's desire for international approval trumped security concerns; U.N. Resolution 242 now provides the basis for the Palestinian Trojan Horse campaign to destroy Israel.

Secular Zionism forces Israel to allow the murder of its own citizens and the rape of its sovereignty. Almost every day, Jews are brutally slaughtered at the hands of Israel's "peace partners." But Israel's anti-terror campaign has been mainly bulldozing empty terrorist hideouts and complaining about Yasser Arafat. Secular Zionism dictates that Israel either forgive Palestinian terror or fight terror with one hand tied behind its back.

The essence of secular Zionism is rejection of religious Judaism. But the only way the Jewish state can survive is to become more, not less, Jewish. Israel must reject the tenets of secularism, the "family of nations" ideal. The basis of the Jewish claim to the land of Israel stems from God. For millennia, Jews have prayed for the ingathering of exiles, for a return to the Holy Land. Now, God has granted them their homeland and the weapons to defend it. God's road map requires the Jews to kill those who seek to kill them (Talmud Sanhedrin 72A). Israel has the God-given obligation to defend itself against those who wish to destroy it.

Secular Zionism has fulfilled its mission; it has created a homeland for the Jews. But ever since that creation, the appeasement-oriented tenets of secular Zionism have meant unending conflict. Only if Israel elects to follow God's road map will true peace ever be achieved.

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