Road Map May Help Break Middle East Impasse
Adrienne McPhail, Special to Arab News



After the failure of numerous peace plans and countless UN resolutions,
after years of negotiations by endless experts, why does the world now think
the road map to peace will succeed? The answer is because it has to succeed.
The Bush administration has finally come to the conclusion that the
suffering of the Palestinian people is the reason for the terrorist groups
it so desperately wants to eliminate.

The thought process is: Give statehood to the Palestinians and those groups
will no longer have a “cause.” That may prove to be correct but
accomplishing the goal is going to be extremely difficult, even with the
support of the European Union, Russia and the UN. President Bush will
release the long-awaited road map in the next few weeks. It ought to be
based upon the draft published in November, 2002 which incorporated UN
resolutions 242, 338, 1397, the Madrid Framework from the Madrid Conference,
the Mitchell Report, the Bertini Report, the Tenet Plan and the initiative
proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah.

Already the battle has begun as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is asking for
over 100 revisions to be made to the plan. His response came from National
Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice who told the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee that the road map for a Palestinian state is not
negotiable and that Israel must “play its part”. This is the first step in
the right direction.

If the road map is open to debate, Prime Minister Sharon will use that
debate as a means to delay action and he will dissect the program until
there is nothing left. The road map must be presented as a final document
that will not be changed. The next step is to be sure that the Madrid
Framework is included in it. It is only within this framework issues
concerning Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are addressed. If these Arab countries
do not get the opportunity to resolve their land and legal disputes with
Israel, a new state of Palestine will be only one piece in the incomplete
puzzle. Another step is the implementation of the Mitchell Report. This
report takes a hard line on Israeli settlements, suggests freezing of all
settlement construction activity and even mentions settlements as a cause of
both unrest and friction. The cost of maintaining these settlements to
Israel is enormous at a time when its economy is severely strained. The
Bertini Report that addresses the immediate humanitarian needs of the
Palestinian people also should be implemented as one of the first actions.
This will not only provide relief for the people but will increase trust in
the peace process and help to silence the guns. All of these actions are
important and challenging but the two most difficult will be the resolution
of what to do with Jerusalem and gaining Israel’s full cooperation.

In spite of UN resolutions 252, 267 and 298 — all of which the United States
supported — Israel is determined to keep unlawful control of Jerusalem and
to make it the country’s capital. President Bush is making an error in
judgment by stating that the status of Jerusalem must be negotiated between
Israelis and the Palestinians. The solution is quite simply to remove
Jerusalem from the equation by creating a separate city-state as was
intended as part of the original UN plan in 1947. Under such a plan,
Jerusalem would be governed jointly by Muslims, Christians and Jews. If
Jerusalem is left divided or given exclusively to either Israel or
Palestine, the repercussions will be unending. The final step in the process
will be to enlist Israel’s full support. The United States is going to try
and approach Israel with economic incentives to win this support.

The State Department has already requested $50 million in funding for
Palestine and they have requested $1 billion in direct economic aid for
Israel as well as $9 billion in loan guarantees to help rebuild the Israeli
economy. These enormous sums are separate and in addition to the annual
Israeli aid package. The Israeli people will have to decide just how much
their occupied lands are worth. They are trying to absorb hundreds of
thousands of new immigrants from what were the Eastern bloc nations and, at
the same time, they are supporting a full time military that is constantly
at war. Their fragile economy cannot afford to continue to support these
strains indefinitely. This road map to peace is the correct direction for
Israel to follow. The Bush administration must sell the program both to
Israel and to the American public.

They cannot allow the debate in Congress to develop into a religious
platform, uniting Jewish and Christian fundamentalists in solid opposition.
One of the correct moves this administration made was in refusing to let the
war on terrorism be played as a religious agenda. The administration will
have to remove any doubts that it is deserting its staunch Jewish ally and
undermining Israel’s security. If the Americans are wise, they will present
Jerusalem as the symbol of their support for all three major religions. This
will in turn help to pacify the Christians who will finally have some direct
input into the running of the holy city. After all, they can honestly state
that the very name Jerusalem means peace.

(Adrienne McPhail is a free-lance journalist based in Riyadh.)

Arab News Opinion 13 April 2003

Editorial: Road Map at Crossroads
14 April 2003

For Israel, the most threatening development the war with Iraq had to offer
was the possibility of Scud missiles or chemical weapons being lobbed into
the country. Because neither scenario materialized, the most serious concern
facing Tel Aviv now is the war’s end. The conclusion of hostilities will
switch attention from Iraq back to the Middle East crisis and consequently
the upcoming publication of the much-vaunted road map.

Israel has made it clear that it has no interest in the road map. Clear
rejection was uttered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in January,
ahead of his country’s general elections. He claimed that the quartet, which
drafted the plan and which consists of the US, the European Union, Russia
and the UN, “is nothing. Don’t take it seriously. There is another plan that
will work.”

The “other plan” was around 100 proposed amendments by the Israeli
government. This went down badly in Washington where the preference was to
publish the text and only then get into the haggling. The latest reports
speak of 15 “reservations” that Sharon intends to convey to the Bush
administration.

There is more than one problem with the road map, but the biggest hurdle of
them all is Israel’s rejection of it. Some Israeli ministers demand an
explicit Palestinian renunciation of the refugees’ right to return, a demand
no Palestinian can accept. Above all, the Sharon government insists on a
principle of sequence or conditionality that the December draft carefully
left vague. First, Israel says, the Palestinian side must curb “the
terrorism and stop all incitement.” Only after a lengthy period of quiet
would Israel’s duties kick in, including the duty to freeze the building of
new settlements. But to those unaware of Israel’s manipulation of the term
“terrorism,” it was indirectly suggesting that such a plan would ultimately
never be implemented.

The Palestinians do not like the road map much either. They say it has all
the defects of Oslo and offers even less. Although the plan is phrased in a
way that places certain expectations on both sides, it continuously presses
Palestinians to initiate reform as a prerequisite for Israeli action.
Palestinians are expected to end “terrorism, violence and incitement.” Only
then will Israel freeze settlements. Only Palestinians are expected to
implement security and political reforms. The right-wing Israeli government
is to do nothing except to withdraw — once Palestinians end the “violence” —
to the pre-intifada days. The road map not only failed to emphasize the need
to acknowledge international law, and to address key issues such as the
right of return, water and occupied Jerusalem, but also failed to even
define the borders of a Palestinian state or provide any mechanism or
guarantees to secure the implementation of the plan.

Palestinians and Israelis now wait for the road map to be formally
presented. Its publication was not as imminent as President Bush first
indicated. First it was tied to the results of the Israeli election, then
the appointment of a new Palestinian prime minister, then to the moment when
he announces his Cabinet and finally to an end to the war in Iraq.

It seems the time for its introduction is approaching, but the Bush
administration appears not to have made up its mind about the degree of
commitment it has toward the road map — which can be just as detrimental as
Israel’s opposition to it.

Source:ArabNews.

With the very best of good wishes,
Musa Amadu Pembo
Glasgow,
Scotland
UK.
[log in to unmask]
Da’wah is to convey the message with wisdom and with good words. We should
give the noble and positive message of Islam. We should try to emphasize
more commonalities and explain the difference without getting into
theological arguments and without claiming the superiority of one position
over the other. There is a great interest among the people to know about
Islam and we should do our best to give the right message.
May Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,guide us all to His Sirat Al-Mustaqim (Righteous
Path).May He protect us from the evils of this life and the hereafter.May
Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,grant us entrance to paradise .
We ask Allaah the Most High, the All-Powerful, to teach us that which will
benefit us, and to benefit us by that which we learn. May Allaah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala grant blessings and peace to our Prophet Muhammad and his family
and
companions..Amen.




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