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Sun 16 May, 2004 09:31 am
Evacuating Sharon - a choice for peace
By Akiva Eldar - Haaretz
5/15/04
It was difficult to decide whether to react with laughter or shame at the resolute protest voiced by the leader of the opposition with regard to the fact that 50,000 Likud members are dictating policy to an entire country.
And what if the referendum had ended in a victory by 500 votes for the supporters of the disengagement plan? Would the architect of Oslo have protested the procedure nevertheless; and would he have rejected Ariel Sharon's invitation to join his government?
The position of the Labor Party, under Shimon Peres, with regard to the unilateral disengagement plan shows that its leadership has yet to internalize the separation from Sharon. The main opposition party is crawling blindfolded on the trail of a strategy that immediately contradicts the Oslo agreement - the most significant achievement the peace camp has made since the start of the occupation in 1967.
In its eagerness to support the Sharon plan, the Labor Party abandoned the two principles of the Oslo agreement: First of all, Oslo's objective is not the evacuation of the settlements, but a peace deal. And secondly, under the Oslo accord, every detail of the peace deal, and the road to it, will be worked out solely through negotiations - with no unilateral steps whatsoever.
The affliction of despair for peace and dialogue has also spread to Peace Now, which is handing out the "Evacuating settlements - a choice for life" stickers. One could easily think the stickers came from a campaign office set up by Sharon's supporters ahead of the Likud referendum. What happened to "Land for peace"? And what about "Peace is better than a Greater Israel"? Where is the "Two states for two nations" sticker? They're all gone. Peace Now's next sticker will be "The separation fence - a choice for security."
The settlers are right. The evacuation of 7,500 of them won't bring peace any closer, and won't save lives either. For Yasser Arafat to consider stopping the religious fundamentalists from waging war, there is a need to evacuate more than 100,000 settlers, to replace territories with areas inside the Green Line, to divide Jerusalem, to forgo sovereignty on the Temple Mount and to agree that a solution to the refugee problem will be based on UN Resolution 194.
To restore peace to the consciousness of the Israeli and Palestinian publics, the leaders of the "peace camp" must bless the settlers for releasing them from the trap of a unity government that Sharon laid for them in the form of the unilateral disengagement plan.
Sharon said himself that there is nothing that speaks higher praise for his plan than the protests it evoked among the Palestinian leadership, but it is only with this leadership that peace can be negotiated.
The void left behind after the failure of the disengagement plan is an invitation to the lovers of peace to remove Sharon from the agenda once and for all, and to make a choice for peace anew. This can't be done by touting peace slogans and humming protest songs in Rabin Square. Euphemisms work not only in the service of the right. Mundanely calling for "a return to the peace negotiating table" or for "the renewal of the peace process" is no help at all.
Against partial and unilateral initiatives, such as the disengagement from Gaza or the invasive separation fence, the peace-lovers can present complete, bilateral and detailed peace plans. The plans should include borders and solutions to all the issues in dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, and not between Israel and itself. The Clinton plan, the Geneva understandings and the Nusseibeh-Ayalon document are waiting for political leaders to haul them out of mothballs.
Before everything, the Labor leaders, the Shinui doves, the Peace Now activists and even the Yahad hawks must disassociate themselves from the "there's no partner" perception that Ehud Barak has so skillfully imparted since his failure at the Camp David summit in 2000 and his crushing defeat in the elections of 2001.
Politicians are entitled to bask in the title of leader only if they are prepared to swim upstream. There was a time when Shimon Peres was like that, and he won a Nobel Peace Prize for his pains. On Saturday night, in Rabin Square, he will have an opportunity to say a last good-bye to Sharon and to call on President Bush to declare, in 2005 of all years, the establishment of a Palestinian state, based on the 1967 borders, that will live in peace - yes, in P-E-A-C-E - with Israel.
Analysis / The Sharon camp re-groups
Analysis / The Sharon camp re-groups
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
5/15/04
The Majority Coalition demonstration Saturday night at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square added a new twist to Israel's political history - the opposition went out to demonstrate in support of the prime minister, but against his party and most of the ministers in his government.
Officials in the Prime Minister's Office on Saturday night hoped the rally would add to public pressure now felt by Likud ministers. They are being asked to ignore the results of the Likud referendum and support Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank - or at least a repackaged version of it.
Sharon repeatedly denies there is any link between the rash of attacks and incidents in the Gaza Strip where 18 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed, and his separation plan. Intelligence officials also cast doubt on possible links between the plan and recent lethal events in Gaza.
Nonetheless, in the public mind there is a clear connection, and the current bloodshed has put the issue of Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip at the top of the country's public agenda. Poll results repeatedly indicate that a majority of the country favors withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The failure of the Likud referendum has prompted extreme responses from Sharon's aides. One senior official has decided that no major initiative is possible because the government will never be able to bypass a stand taken by such a united, well-organized minority of hard-liners.
"Everything will remain in a rut," this official grimly predicts. "Sooner or later people will understand that the Palestinians are stuck because of a lack of democracy, whereas we have been derailed because of an excess of democracy."
But, following this initial shock after the referendum debacle, and after a few trial balloons were floated - concepts like a "mini-plan" and "gradual disengagement" - Sharon's camp is starting to re-mobilize in earnest. This weekend, the prime minister's aides spoke about a return to the original disengagement plan, with a few additions.
The territorial dimensions of the plan will remain as they were; the plan will continue to feature the dismantling of all settlement on the Gaza Strip, and of four West Bank settlements. Yet the plan is to be "strengthened" by some new items which relate both to security and also to the handling of property in areas which are to be evacuated.
The Bush administration is also recovering from the shock which was delivered by the results of the Likud referendum. The U.S. continues to express public support of the disengagement plan, and to try to sell the plan to the Palestinians, Arab states and European countries.
As the political situation in Israel re-stabilizes, U.S. officials have renewed contacts with top Palestinian Authority officials. But officials in Washington, along with their counterparts in Jerusalem, doubt that these new contacts between Bush administration delegates and top PA officials will yield concrete, positive results.
BBB
It is discouraging to think that nothing will change between Israel and the Palestinians until Arafat and Sharon and their generation are dead. History has taught us this lesson.
I also find it amazing that the 20 percent of the population that is orthodox in Israel is controlling a country where the other eighty percent is not. Rabid devotion to an ideology and great organization seems to outweigh the interests of everyone else.
Where is another Rabin when we and the world needs him?
BBB
Israelis Rally for Gaza Strip Withdrawal
Israelis Rally for Gaza Strip Withdrawal
Sat May 15, 2004
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
TEL AVIV, Israel - More than 100,000 Israelis rallied Saturday night in favor of a pullout from the Gaza Strip, a massive show of strength by the long-dormant opposition movement.
Saturday night's protest, led by the opposition Labor Party, followed a bloody week in Gaza in which 13 Israeli soldiers and 32 Palestinians were killed. Fighting continued early Sunday, as Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza City, knocking out power and causing widespread panic.
Demonstrators packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed in 1995 by a Jewish extremist opposed to peace efforts, for Saturday's rally. Israeli media estimated the crowd at up to 150,000 people, one of the largest rallies by Israel's so-called peace camp since Rabin's death.
Organizers hoped the strong showing would breathe new life into the opposition and help restart peace talks with the Palestinians, which have been stalled for months.
"Exit from Gaza, begin talking," read a large poster over the main stage.
Some demonstrators held placards in support of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has proposed withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, a volatile area where 7,500 Jewish settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians.
Members of Sharon's Likud Party recently vetoed the pullout plan, although polls have shown a solid majority of Israelis favor the proposal.
"This is a protest of the majority," opposition leader Shimon Peres told the crowd in a fiery speech. "Eighty percent of our people want peace. One percent are trying to block it."
Other speakers included Ami Ayalon, a former director of the Shin Bet internal security service, and Yom Tov Samia, a former military commander responsible for Gaza.
While the protest was set up weeks ago, organizers and participants said the latest fighting in Gaza gave the rally added weight.
"I think many people decided to come out today because of the soldiers getting killed in Gaza this week," said Tal Kfir, a 26-year-old student from Tel Aviv.
Some commentators drew parallels with the popular groundswell of criticism that preceded Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an ill-fated 18-year occupation.
"After months, the peace camp is awakening," Yossi Beilin, head of the dovish Yahad Party, told The Associated Press. "We will not let Sharon lead us by the nose."
At an economic conference in Jordan, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday the Palestinians are willing to consider an Israeli pullout from Gaza depending on how Sharon revises the plan rejected by his party.
"I think that the Palestinians want to seize this opportunity," Powell said after a 40-minute meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. "They want to know more about it, of course."
Qureia described the meeting as "very, very constructive."
Meanwhile, Israeli troops on Saturday withdrew from the Rafah refugee camp, site of a Palestinian attack last Wednesday that killed five soldiers, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
Dozens of homes and businesses were demolished, water pipes and electric cables were destroyed. U.N. officials said more than 1,000 people were left homeless.
The Israeli military said it had to secure the area for troops retrieving body parts of the five dead soldiers. It also reported heavy "collateral damage" from exchanges of gunfire with Palestinian militants.
The withdrawal came as Palestinians marked the anniversary of Israel's establishment 56 years ago, a day known to Palestinians as "the catastrophe."
In his televised speech from the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged his people to remain steadfast, sending a mixed message of defiance and a readiness for peace talks.
"Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God," he said, quoting the Quran. "And if they want peace, then let's have peace."
Arafat also said the Palestinians' "hand is extended (to Israel) ... to make this peace, the peace of the brave."
At noon, sirens wailed throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip to signal three minutes of silence. Thousands of Palestinians participated in marches throughout the areas. Many held large wooden keys symbolizing homes lost more than half a century ago.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled during fighting ahead of Israel's independence on May 15, 1948. Although Palestinian leaders say they want an independent state in Gaza and the West Bank, several million refugees and their descendants hope to return to their properties inside Israel.
"Every Palestinian refugee looks forward to the day he will embrace his homeland," said Musa Zaqout, 66, of the Beach refugee camp in Gaza.
Israel opposes the return of Palestinian refugees, saying it would be demographic suicide. President Bush recently backed the Israeli position, saying refugees would have to settle in a future Palestinian state.
"There will be no concessions, no bargaining," Arafat said. "It is a sacred right for each refugee to return to his homeland."
In the latest Gaza fighting, Israeli helicopters early Sunday fired missiles in Gaza City, knocking out power in the northern third of the city. At least four bystanders, including a 3-year-old boy, were lightly wounded, and dozens of people anxiously left their homes while still in their pajamas.
One of the air strikes hit a building affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) movement. Palestinians said it housed a Fatah cultural center that served local families. A second strike hit a building housing the offices of a Hamas newspaper, causing heavy damage.
The army described the targets as "focal points of terrorist activity." It had no information on Palestinian reports of a third strike that hit an electric transformer and knocked out power to 40,000 residents in northern Gaza City.
On Saturday, Israeli helicopters fired rockets in Gaza City and Rafah, hitting three buildings associated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a pair of deadly attacks on Israeli army vehicles that sparked the week's violence.
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:"There will be no concessions, no bargaining," Arafat said. "It is a sacred right for each refugee to return to his homeland."
That is the main reason for impossibility to find a partner for solving the conflict by means of negotiations. Arafat insists on returning of the refugees, since he knows that this is the only thing the Arab world can do to eliminate the State of Israel from the world map. The birth rate of Palestinians is 6.17 kids per female (see
World Factbook of the CIA[/b]), and they will easily outnumber the Jews in Israel.
Therefore, the only solution possible is a unilateral step that implies withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, evacuating majority of settlements from there and building a defensive wall, physically separating Israel from the areas mentioned. Whether the Palestinians will declare there their independent state, is completely upon their leadership, and it will be not of the Israeli concern. But if this hypothetic state launches attacks against Israel, it will be possible to bomb it down to the Stone Age, in framework of the conventional war of two sovereign states.
Except for the latter part - I oppose war - it seems that I agree with you. Just wanted to say that.
I do not want war either: but I support devastative response to aggression. Aggressors cannot be appeased by gentle words. They understand language of bombers and MLRS's better than English or even Arabic.
So the people in the area will probably pay the price for the way their leaders act?
Rick d'Israeli wrote:So the people in the area will probably pay the price for the way their leaders act?
Palestine Liberation Organization did not perform a single action in 1965-67
to free Palestine from Egyptian or Jordanian occupation. From the very beginning it started attacking Israel. Every year PLO/Fatah celebrates anniversary of their first terror attack against Israel in the Sea of Galilee area that occurred on 01.01.65, two and half years prior to beginning of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
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