WERE THERE ROADS, OR WAS IT JUST A MAP....?
Mideast Deadlock Lands on Bush's Desk
Sun May 11, 2003 06:15 PM ET
By Jonathan Wright
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has fended off Washington's first attempt to have him accept a Middle East peace plan, setting the stage for a test of U.S. commitment when he visits Washington on May 20.
Powell had talks on Sunday with Sharon and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas but failed to win an Israeli endorsement of the international plan, known as the Middle East "road map."
The Israeli government agreed to release some 180 Palestinian prisoners and ease restrictions for Palestinians to work in Israel, an Israeli official said, but Powell seemed to make no progress on long-term aspects of the road map.
A gap in strategic thinking between the United States and its closest Middle East ally came to light during Powell's visit, specifically on the implications of the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by U.S. military might.
Powell told reporters on his plane to Tel Aviv on Saturday that the war in Iraq had eliminated "one of the strategic threats in the region, especially to the state of Israel," with the implication that Israel should now feel more secure.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the U.S. military operation imposed new obligations mainly on the Palestinians, suggesting that Israel might now be less flexible in peace negotiations.
"After the war in Iraq the game is changed," Shalom said after meeting Powell. "There are new rules and they (the Palestinians) will have to adopt a new way of behavior to move toward peace. A new approach must bring them to realize that the change must come."
Adding to the complications is the fact that a significant school of thought in Washington takes the Israeli line, dismissing Powell's approach to diplomacy as outdated.
Powell came to Jerusalem hoping to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to take confidence-building measures, even before Israel agrees to all the details of the plan devised by the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations.
But such measures alone can make only so much progress without agreement on the peace plan's long-term aim -- an independent Palestinian state as early as 2005.
The Palestinians told Powell they accepted the road map as it is, despite some reservations, while Israel has asked for some significant changes in the document.
A senior State Department official told reporters after Powell's meetings that President Bush remained committed to the road map as the way to bring about peace.
"The secretary made clear that the road map is the implementation of the president's vision. It's the way to achieve the vision in practical terms and that's the basis of our work," said the official, who asked not to be named.
RESERVATIONS WITHIN ADMINISTRATION
The Israeli-Palestinian impasse is familiar, but the difference this time is that Powell came to promote a plan backed by the international community, key Arab states and Bush.
That shifts the attention to the May 20 meeting between Bush and Sharon and revives the debate over the depth of Bush's commitment to the Middle East peace plan.
Influential members of the Bush administration have had reservations about the road map, especially the role it assigns to the European Union and the United Nations, officials say.
Conservatives on the fringes of the administration have argued that it is a trap for Israel and that the right policy would be to join Sharon in treating Palestinian militants as targets in Bush's "global war on terrorism."
Besides, Sharon has a direct channel to the White House, bypassing Powell's State Department, which Israel and its supporters consider to be a hotbed of Arab sympathizers.
Two senior officials of the White House's National Security Council -- deputy adviser Stephen Hadley and Middle East director Elliot Abrams -- visited Israel discreetly at the end of April and went on an Israeli helicopter tour of the West Bank designed to explain the Jewish state's security demands, the Washington Post said on Sunday.
"Mr. Sharon assumes, probably correctly, that the Bush administration...is not likely to challenge him as it enters an election year," said Middle East analyst Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution and the University of Maryland.
But Powell and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are convinced that Bush is committed to push the peace plan through against Sharon's objections, U.S. officials says.
"When Prime Minister Sharon comes to Washington, I think he'll hear very directly the president's commitment to making the road map work as a way of achieving the president's vision," the senior U.S. official said.
reuters.com |
