Carter blames Israel for Mideast conflict

Kadima Proposes Handing Judea and Samaria to Europe

21:16 Jan 25, '07 / 6 Shevat 5767
by Aaron Klein, World Net Daily


A member of PM Ehud Olmert's Kadima party proposed transferring control of Judea and Samaria to a European task force until the establishment of a Palestinian state.


Following the establishment of the state, the strategic territory would be handed to security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The proposal comes after WND broke the story earlier this week according to top European and Egyptian diplomatic sources Israel has been conducting behind-the-scene negotiations to hand over most of Judea and Samaria to Abbas' security forces. The sources said the transfer of security control to Abbas would be coordinated by the European Union and Jordan.

Judea and Samaria encompass Jerusalem and are within rocket-firing range of Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.

At Israel's prestigious Herzliya Conference, Knesset Member Shlomo Breznitz, reportedly a close confidante of Olmert, said the Judea and Samaria should be temporarily transferred to the Europeans and that most of the territory's Jewish communities should be evacuated.

"The only way to get out of the impasse is to transfer the territories, for a limited time, to an international mandate, that will run them until the establishment of a Palestinian state," said Breznitz at the conference.

The Herzliya Conference is attended by Israel's top leadership and regularly maps out the country's agenda for the coming year. In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his plan to withdraw from Gaza at the conference.

Breznitz told Israel's Maariv daily newspaper the territories should be transferred to the European community and not the United States because, he said, after the invasion of Iraq America "lost its status as an honest broker in the view of the Palestinians and the Arab states."
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The Palestinians should reject and disavow themselves of any support for Palestinian government or policy committed to the extermination of Israel.

The Palestinians should publicly and without equivocation denounce terrorist activities of all kinds and should not support or protect terrorists in any way.

The Palestinians should pledge allegiance to Israeli law and their commitment to be law abiding and peaceful citizens of Israel and do whatever they can to put that into practice.

If they do that, I think you would see Israel's attitude and behavior toward the Palestinians change dramatically--perhaps not overnight, but within a reasonable time as the Palestinians proved to be trustworthy, and then if the excessive discriminatory practices continued, I will join you in condemning Israel.

Until then, I think Israel is justified in doing whatever it must to protect and defend itself.

Israel is an independent, recognized nation that can run the country as it pleases. It has no obligation to admit Pals from outside the country.

Jordan is essentially a Pal country, to which those Pals can retreat. Hussein, of course, wants nothing to do with them.

A little ray of sunshine: www.nswas.com

Sir Ronald's plan for peace
The prominent venture capitalist and backer of Gordon Brown urges economic support the Palestinians as a route to stability

FROM JEFF BARAK, JERUSALEM

PROMINENT GORDON Brown supporter Sir Ronald Cohen has no intention of following in the footsteps of Lord Levy, Prime Minister Tony Blair's envoy to the Middle East and a major Labour Party fundraiser.

"I'm not interested in having an official position," Sir Ronald told the JC on Sunday. "I'm not trying to be an envoy."

Sir Ronald, the former chairman of Apax, one of the world's leading private equity investment groups, was in Jerusalem to deliver a lecture on the role of economic initiatives in peacemaking. Describing himself as "a social entrepreneur", Sir Ronald said that he did not "view myself as trying to take on the same type of challenge as Michael Levy did.

"I'm trying to use my business knowledge and access to capital markets in order to help resolve the IsraeliPalestinian conflict… Business must make its voice heard. When politics gets stuck, business can help get politicians back together," he said.

In his lecture to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, Sir Ronald said that it was clear that politics alone would not bring Israeli-Palestinian peace, and that economic drivers were needed to push the two sides forward.

"The importance of economics in conflict resolution is that it sets aside the question of motive, grievance, of historical rights and wrongs, and focuses instead on the question of the economic opportunity… The business community has the power to influence the process and can remove some of the most serious economic grievances."

Israel and the Palestinians could learn from the experience of Northern Ireland where, he said, private-sector economic measures, particularly in reducing Catholic unemployment, were a major factor behind mitigating political violence and advancing the cause of peace.

Sir Ronald, the chairman of the Portland Trust, said that Israel needed to have twin objectives: it had to ensure the security of its citizens while at the same time allow the Palestinian economy to develop by providing freedom of movement for Palestinian workers and products.

The aim, he said, should be for the Palestinian economy to grow by an annual 10 per cent for 10 years.

"Prime Minister Olmert buys the economic argument," Sir Ronald said. "The Prime Minister is open to this approach and I've had a number of conversations with him. The question is how you deal with the security issue" in terms of reducing the number of checkpoints in the West Bank.

In 2003, the Portland Trust conducted a study of the Palestinian economy at the request of the UK government. "The Palestinians could surprise us all in terms of their economic ability," Sir Ronald said, noting that Palestinian society had a very high literacy rate and that two-thirds of the population were employed in the private sector.

"Business people," he continued, "want to put the conflict behind them. Nothing will come from a painful stalemate… Private-sector employees do not have job security, unlike government workers.

"It therefore makes sense to develop the Palestinian private sector so as to make people less likely to want terror."

Noting that Palestinian banks lent only 20 per cent of their funds to the private sector due to the risks involved, the Portland Trust has worked with EU and American institutions to provide more than £100 million of loan guarantees to Palestinian banks so that they will extend their credit to small and medium-sized businesses in the Palestinian territories. The Portland Trust is also developing a microfinance sector for loans under £3,000 for very small businesses.

In introducing Sir Ronald's lecture, Israel's Vice Premier Shimon Peres noted that "in the Middle East, there was too much diplomacy and strategy and not enough economy". He pointed out that China changed "not because it had been invaded by an army but because it decided on the free market.

"We have to move on a double-track policy, one political with the Palestinians, which I'm not sure how far it will go," said Mr Peres, "and a social, economic track, independent of the political one."

SIR RONALD COHEN IN BRIEF
Ronald Cohen was born in Cairo in 1945. His family fled Egypt for Britain after the 1956 Suez crisis. His third wife, the film producer Sharon Harel-Cohen, is Israeli, and they have two children, Tamara and Jonathan. The 2005 Sunday Times Rich List put his fortune at £70 million. He was a founding partner and former chairman of Apax Partners, one of the world's leading private-equity investment groups. A Liberal Party candidate in the 1970s, Sir Ronald switched his support to Labour in the 1990s and became a major backer of the party and a close supporter of Gordon Brown. Knighted in 2001, Sir Ronald is the chairman of the Social Investment Task Force and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets. He is a trustee of the British Museum and vice chairman of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Sir Ronald is also the founder and chairman of the Portland Trust, a private not-for-profit British foundation promoting peace and stability between Palestinians and Israelis through economic development. He is a graduate and honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a Harvard Business School MBA.

Before the '67 war, the Pals owned and controlled the West Bank and Gaza, and all the water resources therein.

Before the '67 war, the Pals owned and controlled the West Bank and Gaza, and all the water resources therein. As we know, this didn't satisfy the Pals, or dissuade them from trying to destroy Israel.

Thus, it is a mockery to say that water is what prevents a settlement, and a recognition of the right of Israel to exist.

Shmuel Rosner, the estimable Ha'aretz correspondent, noted that it is telling that every significant critic of Carter's book is Jewish, concluding that Jews are increasingly isolated on matters relating to Israel.

Those who believe they are helping Israel by shouting down any and all opposition to counterproductive Israeli policies are not helping Israel at all. They are simply building resentment within the body politic of the one nation in the world which Israel needs to survive.

Overreacting to criticism is good for organizational fundraising and for getting on Fox News. But that is all its good for. It's not good for the Jews. And it's certainly not good for Israel or America.