Sharon, Trusting Bush

In the midst of yesterday's stormy six-hour meeting of Israel's cabinet, assembled to reluctantly affirm or angrily reject Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to accede to White House pressure to sign on to a lopsided "road map," a beeper went off in the pocket of an aide.

A message was passed to Sharon: in anticipation that his trust-Bush argument would prevail, the stock market in Tel Aviv had rocketed up nearly 7 percent (equivalent to a 600-point rise in our Dow Jones industrial average).

The former general, who had been relying on his defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, to assuage the cabinet's security concerns, promptly launched a second front: "Hope is important," Sharon (in a Sunday midnight telephone interview) recalls saying. "Cuts in the budget alone won't help us. What we need is, first, quiet, and the start of the political process."

That may have made the difference. Although 11 members voted no or abstained, 12 were willing to gamble on Sharon's trust in Bush. "It was not an easy meeting," he says. "I decided not to postpone until we could be sure of the vote, but to take the risk because Israel must not be looked upon as an obstacle to the search for peace. What President Bush said the other day affected me — that he was fully committed for the security of the state of Israel. Maybe now there is a possibility to move forward."

As the vote showed, hard-liners are worried about "Arik": He had insisted on "quiet" — an end to terror attacks — before negotiating, but then changed that to "100 percent effort" by new Palestinian leaders. Sharon had also insisted on evidence beforehand of a campaign to disarm and pacify Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but he was willing to hold private talks during a spate of suicide bombings. Sharon had spurned negotiation as long as Palestinians asserted claims to return en masse to Israel, but even as they kept putting forward that non-starter, he met with the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

"I discussed security with Abu Mazen a week ago. I offered him this: if they can't gain control of all the areas, take responsibility for just a section of the front, and we will not be acting in that area. But he was bothered only by the road map.

"I'll see him again during the next few days and we'll continue to talk on how to act against terror. That's the important thing in the performance-based plan. That's the condition for progress between and within the phases. That Arafat controls most of the armed forces is a problem."

Sharon's critics point to the road map itself, drawn up mainly by European and U.N. Arabists and swallowed by our State Department.

"Fourteen points we brought to the attention of the White House will be implemented together with the road map," Sharon says in defense of his approval. "The U.S. said these are real concerns that will be addressed `fully and seriously.' We attached those 14 points to our government's resolution, and that provided us with a certain feeling of security. That, and the friendship and deep strategic cooperation that exists between our two countries."

That's like a side letter to an agreement, which the Palestinians and Europeans brush off (though President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points was the basis of a peace conference ending World War I). Sharon would add a 15th objection: "the removal of references to U.N. resolutions other than 242 and 338, and the Beirut conference. We cannot live with Arab League resolutions."

Especially sticky is the claim of refugees to land fled from a half-century ago, which Arabs call a "right of return." Palestinians want to kick hundreds of thousands of Jewish "settlers" out of a future Palestine while inserting an even greater number of Muslims into Israel. Jews find that a deal-breaker.

Bush may include a summit meeting with Abbas and Sharon (not in Egypt) if the Palestinian shows a willingness and ability to confront Arab terrorists. Media and European pressure is on Bush to lean on Israel to trade security for the appearance of peace.

"I am willing to go far for a durable peace," said the Israeli leader last night, "but I will make no compromise on security. We are a very small country whose people are prepared to defend themselves by themselves. My historical responsibility is to preserve that capability."

http://jta.org/page_Jewish_News_Israel.asp
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Will Settlers Move For Cash?
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
If pressure won’t move settlers,activists think cash might do it

By Joe Berkofsky

NEW YORK, May 13 (JTA) — Where pressure and persuasion have failed to grease the wheels of Israeli-Palestinian peace, cash will.
At least that’s the thinking behind a new campaign powered by such figures as actor Ed Asner, novelist Michael Chabon and cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

They and other celebrity Jews, academics and religious leaders have signed on to a petition by the group Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, titled “A Call to Bring the Settlers Home to Israel.”

The Chicago-based group, also known by its Hebrew name Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, sponsored national newspaper ads last week that call for offering around $3 billion in cash incentives to 16,000 settler families — or nearly $190,000 per family — to move back inside the Green Line, as Israel’s pre-1967 border is known.

The money would come from U.S. foreign aid and from the European Union, according to the plan’s backers.

The drive is fueled by a recent Israeli poll that said 80 percent of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip came to the area not because of religious or political ideology but because of government subsidies in the form of cheap mortgages, tax breaks and free schooling.

Engineered by a former dovish member of Knesset, Marcia Freedman, the petition aims to settle the issue of Jewish settlements, which Freedman calls “a major obstacle to peace.”

“We can take away one of the core issues” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “by demonstrating that the settlers would like to get out of there, and that there is no sense among Israelis generally or among the settlers themselves that the settlements are required for security,” Freedman said.

The plan dovetails with the U.S.-backed “road map” toward peace, which also calls for Israel to stop settlement activity. But it’s not the first time that activists have considered the idea that money can help buy peace.

In January, Americans for Peace Now urged members of Congress who were considering $9 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Israel to “set aside” 20 percent to build new homes for settlers who would relocate inside Israel proper.

That followed a U.S. condition to the loans stipulating a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the guarantees for money Israel spent on settlements.

“This is something that Americans for Peace Now has been pointing out for some time,” said the group’s assistant executive director, Lewis Roth. “But we’ve directly tied it to new funding that was being considered for Israel and was provided for Israel.”

In fact, these cash-infused conflict resolutions follow familiar American political signposts when it comes to the Jewish state.

Scott Lasensky, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, recently wrote a paper titled “Inducing Peace: Nixon, Kissinger and the Creation of Middle East Peace.”

President Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, instituted a significant change in U.S. policy toward Israel, Lasensky said — the notion that “you can’t make demands of Israel. You provide positive incentives that will have certain cascading effects inside Israel.”

In 1991, the first President Bush tied $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel to the issue of settlements — a move then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir fought.

The twist, however, is that financial inducements “work best in a political framework, when there’s something to latch on to,” Lasensky added.

Enter the road map, which was drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia and formally presented to Israel and the Palestinian Authority a few weeks ago.

“If the stars become aligned and we begin to move through Phase One” of the road map, “it’s not so outlandish to begin to think of a situation where new American aid” funds the relocation of settlers, Lasensky said.

With many barriers remaining to the road map— including ongoing terrorist attacks — Lasensky could not predict how soon a settler-relocation plan could go into effect.

Yet the road map could make the petition drive relevant, some say.

Tamara Wittes, Middle East specialist for the U.S. Institute of Peace, a Washington think tank, said the Bush administration has made an end to settlement-building a central fixture of the road map.

That opens the door for American Jews opposed to settlements to hone in on the issue, Wittes said.

The settlements are “one of the stronger levers they have,” she said.

Peace activists said the petition also is built on the notion that with the country’s economy in shambles, Israelis might be eager for financial help.

In January, Peace Now released a study showing that Israel spent $440 million in fiscal 2001 on settlements, not including defense costs.

Not only would Israelis generally prefer that the money be used for pressing economic needs, but most settlers would grab a buyout right now, Freedman said.

Her group bases the notion on a July 2002 poll by Israeli pollster Micha Hopp that said half of the settlers would accept compensation to leave, while 80 percent would not fight an eviction order.

In large part, the readiness of some settlers to abandon their homes stems from the Palestinian intifada. Many have found their dream — not to mention their real estate values — shattered by the violence, Freedman said.

As for those settlers still driven by religion or ideology, “that’s going to have to be part of a negotiated settlement,” Freedman said.

Israeli public opinion will not support them, if it ever did, she added.

Israeli legislator Naomi Chazan has proposed similar cash-for-relocation plans annually, but they never got off the ground.

The resettlement plan seems to be gaining some traction in the United States. Freedman said the group’s petition, which is online, is drawing about 200 signatures daily.

If the petition garners 10,000 signatures, the group will begin lobbying Congress, beginning with Jewish legislators, Freedman said.

Some American Jewish leaders opposed to the road map criticized the thinking behind petition drive.

“That any Jew would support a campaign to make any area ‘Judenrein,’ ” or free of Jews, “is revolting and racist,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.

If 1 million Israeli Arabs can live among 5 million Israeli Jews, why can’t 200,000 settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians? Klein asked.

The logic is that “the basis for the Arab war against Israel is Jews living in Judea and Samaria, when in fact between 1948 and 1967 there were three wars and constant terrorism when there was not a single Jewish settlement” in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, he said.

“People refuse to realize the real cause of the conflict is the existence of a Jewish state, not settlements,” Klein said.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Consulate in New York, Dina Wosner, said the Israeli government would not comment on the plan.

Wittes cautioned that many of the hard-core settlers remain defiant, and their outposts are filled with idealists for whom hardship is a “natural way of life.”

“These guys,” she said, “aren’t going to take a check to move back inside the Green Line.”

Courier:
Kinda looks like a "pre-arranged deal" made back in 1991 by the 'elite' powers then, where Israel gets the $10/B if they move their settlements back to the pre-1967 borders.

Also, there was another story about the $10/B loan guarantee freeze by Bush a week ago to put pressure on Sharon out of Israel, but the link has been mysteriously removed.

Hey, don't believe it. Ignoranace is bliss! LOL

The support of Israel is a biblically based mandate for every Christian. All other nations were created by an act of men, but God Himself established the boundaries of the nation of Israel. God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a covenant of land that was eternally binding, and it's recorded in the book of Genesis. God also told Abraham that He would make Abraham's descendants into a great nation and through them He would bless all the families of the earth. In the same passage, God said He would "bless those who bless you" (Abraham), and "curse him who curses you" (Gen. 12:3). That gets my attention. I want to be blessed, not cursed, by God. The Bible shows God as the protector and defender of Israel. Psalm 121:4 says that He never slumbers or sleeps in His watching over the nation of Israel. The prophet Zechariah said that the Jewish people are "the apple of God's eye" (2:8). Any nation that comes against Israel is, in effect, poking God in the eye-not a very wise thing to do! If God created Israel, if God defends Israel, if God considers Israel the apple of His eye, then it is logical to say that those who stand with Israel are standing with God. Every Christian should remember the debt of gratitude the Christian community owes to the Jewish community. The Jewish people do not need Christianity to explain their existence or their origin. But Christians cannot explain their existence without Judaism. It was the Jewish people who gave us the written Scripture. They gave us the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They gave us the disciples and the apostle Paul. The Jewish people gave to Christianity the first Christian family, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus-our Savior! If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there is nothing left. Geopolitically speaking, we should support Israel because it is the only true democracy in the Middle East. The tiny democracy of Israel is surrounded by feudal states and brutal dictatorships that control vast regions of land and oil resources. The presence of the Israeli Defense Forces brings stability to that part of the world. The current conflict in the Middle East is not just about land; it's about Israel's right to exist as a nation. The land has never belonged to the people who now call themselves Palestinians. The area was named Palestine by the Romans, but there has never been a nation called Palestine, and there is no Palestinian language. Before 1948 these people were Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, and citizens of other Arab nations who had moved to the region. They were displaced by the war of 1948, but Israel is not occupying their territory. Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority clearly do not want peace. During the Clinton Administration they were offered a Palestinian State with part of Jerusalem as its capital, along with control of 97 percent of the West Bank-everything their own negotiators had said was requisite for peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the deal, but Yasser Arafat turned it down flat. He walked away from peace, sending a tacit message to the terrorists, who continue their slaughter of innocent lives in their pursuit of destruction of the Jewish State.

I think you didn't read what I had posted:

The support of Israel is a biblically based mandate for every Christian. All other nations were created by an act of men, but God Himself established the boundaries of the nation of Israel. God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a covenant of land that was eternally binding, and it's recorded in the book of Genesis. God also told Abraham that He would make Abraham's descendants into a great nation and through them He would bless all the families of the earth. In the same passage, God said He would "bless those who bless you" (Abraham), and "curse him who curses you" (Gen. 12:3). That gets my attention. I want to be blessed, not cursed, by God. The Bible shows God as the protector and defender of Israel. Psalm 121:4 says that He never slumbers or sleeps in His watching over the nation of Israel. The prophet Zechariah said that the Jewish people are "the apple of God's eye" (2:8). Any nation that comes against Israel is, in effect, poking God in the eye-not a very wise thing to do! If God created Israel, if God defends Israel, if God considers Israel the apple of His eye, then it is logical to say that those who stand with Israel are standing with God. Every Christian should remember the debt of gratitude the Christian community owes to the Jewish community. The Jewish people do not need Christianity to explain their existence or their origin. But Christians cannot explain their existence without Judaism. It was the Jewish people who gave us the written Scripture. They gave us the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They gave us the disciples and the apostle Paul. The Jewish people gave to Christianity the first Christian family, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus-our Savior! If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there is nothing left. Geopolitically speaking, we should support Israel because it is the only true democracy in the Middle East. The tiny democracy of Israel is surrounded by feudal states and brutal dictatorships that control vast regions of land and oil resources. The presence of the Israeli Defense Forces brings stability to that part of the world. The current conflict in the Middle East is not just about land; it's about Israel's right to exist as a nation. The land has never belonged to the people who now call themselves Palestinians. The area was named Palestine by the Romans, but there has never been a nation called Palestine, and there is no Palestinian language. Before 1948 these people were Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, and citizens of other Arab nations who had moved to the region. They were displaced by the war of 1948, but Israel is not occupying their territory. Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority clearly do not want peace. During the Clinton Administration they were offered a Palestinian State with part of Jerusalem as its capital, along with control of 97 percent of the West Bank-everything their own negotiators had said was requisite for peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the deal, but Yasser Arafat turned it down flat. He walked away from peace, sending a tacit message to the terrorists, who continue their slaughter of innocent lives in their pursuit of destruction of the Jewish State.

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