Posted on 05/26/2003 8:24:28 PM PDT by Pokey78
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va.
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."
Bush: What's the big deal Arik? I let in thousands of Muslims to the United States every day - they only occasionally blow things up, so just sign here. And if you're worried about your parliament giving you any crap about so-called "sovereignty", no biggie. Just shelve your "right-of-return" legislation, and passively let the Arabs come and live in Israel illegally on consular IDs. No one will stop you. Trust me on this one.
He may trust GWB implicitly, Sharon as well, and simply believe the road map is a flawed plan which entails significant human risks for Israel, and a low probability of success.
Given the nature of the participants on the palestinian side, I'd tend to agree with him.
Does anyone expect Phase to be completed on Saturday?
If the British had included them when they were creating countries and drawing arbitrary borders, maybe we wouldn't be having all these problems today. It could have and should have been done.
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