A road to peace without Israeli checkpoints [Archives:2003/653/Opinion]

That the Bush Administration is committed to see the peace proposals for the Middle East Conflict, drawn up by a committee of four (the UN and three other states including the United States, France and Russia) through is significant. However, it is most important to understand that a peace can only be accomplished, if the important factor in the process, the United States, becomes oblivious to the domestic political considerations at stake, and works to the removal of the causes of the ongoing violence that we have witnessed in various forms for over 80 years. This would dictate that Washington, and more specifically, White House have a thorough understanding of the issues involved in the Middle East conflict, a feel of the history of the region and the complex interrelationships involved. To be honest and straightforward about certain elements in the conflict (such as considering the resistance to Israeli occupation, which is considered by international law as illegal by any standards) as terror and determining who should be speaking for the vanquished – the Palestinians, denotes a clear indication that the mediator is inclined to lean towards the feelings of one side. Having said all that, we still believe that it is the United States that can bring peace to the Holy Land, because it indeed holds most of the strings of influence in the region that can have an effect on getting the implementation of any plan of the drawing boards and on the ground sustainably. While it would have been more preferential to see the White House take off where the previous administrations left off, after making considerable progress. If the Administration wants its own peace agenda, it must bear in mind that in this conflict, there is not much more that the Palestinians can really give up, when considering that they have been on the short end of the stick all along this conflict. If it comes into this process, with the thinking that, well let's take off from what we have on the ground, where the Israelis are continuously gaining ground and the Palestinians are continuously loosing lives and land, we will really come to a quicker dead end than Oslo and Madrid came to eventually. The Israelis favor such a continuation of movement from one drawing board to the next, because in the interim, they continue to pursue their expansionist agenda on the ground and the Palestinians continue to loose their association with the land by an ongoing fait accompli situation, that they will have to succumb to for each peace plan drawn up.
Since the Road Map has started, the Israeli settlement build-up continues, a “token” gesture of release of prisoners has not materialized, but reflected a PR effort to smooth the rigged edges of an unjustifiable occupation that can only be described as tragic, inhumane and lacking in the least considerations for human dignity and human rights. On the other hand, the Israelis continue their classic methods of intimidation (remember the “Sharon walk to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which launched the present round of violence, even before he was elected Prime Minister). Recently the Israelis have been sending waves of tourists to the sanctuary of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which should immediately raise alarm bells that the Road Map is already in danger, before it even got off the launch pad. The fact of the matter is that, we know the Israelis do not want any peace plan to work, because they have always instigated actions that eventually spark off obvious reactions by their Palestinian “partners”, thus bringing the plan to a dead end, because of security considerations. It is a vicious circle the Israelis have mastered over the last fifty years, with their neighbor Arab States and with the indigenous population they have misplaced. On the other hand, the Israelis will continue to stall the process by a thousand and one means, while they continue to advance their own “plans” for the Holy Land.
We are not confident that this Road Map will be a sustainable process, because the White House will continue to give heavy weight to Israeli views, while throwing any views by the Palestinians on the waste paper basket, even if all the Arab leaders plead and beg until their mouths are dry to at least listen to the Palestinian side. But, we should like to hope that after the American fiasco in Iraq, the Arab world would be worthy of one sign at least that the Americans do have sincere genuine intentions for the region.
What should be also important is that the other members of the Committee that draw up the plan, must follow through on the implementation stages as well. This would at least provide the White House with the political cushion to withstand the pressures on the political domestic front, which continuously works on the premise that Israel is the only human side to the story in the Holy Land and everything else is either associated with terrorism or anti-American hatred. There is a lot more at stake for all concerned.
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