Hi all; U.S. tells Palestine and Israel to settle:
Peres, Arafat to meet despite criticism
Herb Keinon, Gil Hoffman, The Jerusalem Post, September 14, 2001
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat are scheduled to meet by Sunday evening, senior diplomatic sources said yesterday, noting that both Israel and the Palestinians take very seriously US Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent suggestion to "get this process of meetings started."
On Wednesday, Powell told a press conference it was time to stop fussing over where to hold the meetings, and instead "seize this opportunity to see if we cannot start this process of scheduled meetings so that we can get to the Mitchell peace plan."
There has been talk for nearly a month of a Peres-Arafat meeting, but plans to hold it this week were scuttled after a venue could not be agreed upon. The Palestinians wanted to hold the talks in Egypt, an idea Israel rejected, in part because of the key Israel-bashing role Egypt played at the anti-racism conference in Durban.
The meeting is likely to take place at the airport in Gaza, according to Foreign Ministry officials - even though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon labeled Arafat "our Osama bin Laden" in a telephone conversation with Powell Wednesday night.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, when asked how it is possible that Sharon would give Peres a green light for a meeting with "our bin Laden," said "as long as Arafat is engaged in terror and adopts a strategy of terror, there is no difference. But if he stops and takes all the necessary steps, then he's a partner. Sharon didn't rule out the meeting. He wants to see what choice Arafat will now make."
"This is Arafat's opportunity to prove that he is not bin Laden," officials said. "There is no more gray area. Now you are either with the forces of freedom and democracy and liberty, or with the forces of darkness and evil." Regarding criticism that by meeting with Arafat, Peres is giving him a life raft of respectability at a time when his standing in the world has sunk considerably because of the attacks in the US, the officials said, "There is no life raft there. We continue to put pressure on him, but at the same time, if he complies with the terms [of the Tenet and Mitchell plans] then the door is open to resume the dialogue."
The meeting was criticized by ministers Natan Sharansky, Uzi Landau, Eli Yishai, Avigdor Lieberman, Dan Naveh, and Rehavam Ze'evi, as well as former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said that if he permits the meeting to take place, Sharon will be committing a mistake of historic proportions. He warned that if action is not taken immediately, buildings in Tel Aviv would come crashing down and El Al would be hijacked.
"The world finally understands what we are up against," Netanyahu told Israel TV's Channel 2. "There is widespread support on the Israeli street for far-reaching actions against the PA and Arafat himself."
Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post last night that giving Arafat legitimacy after the attacks would be "catastrophic," because it would differentiate between the terror in the US and the terror sponsored by Arafat.
"We don't seem to understand that, two days ago, the world changed forever," Sharansky said. "I've been saying for 10 years that terror from Islamic fundamentalists is the biggest enemy of the world since the fall of communism. Arafat looks at the world the same way bin Laden does. There is still terror and incitement every day and he is still operating a terror campaign."
Naveh issued a statement saying, "Peres is causing us to miss a window of opportunity. The meeting with Arafat will give him legitimization. Instead of meeting with Arafat, the foreign minister should make sure that the Palestinian Authority turns into a central target of the international coalition forming now against terror."
Ze'evi called upon Sharon to veto the meeting. "There is no reason or justification for this kind of meeting, and it will be interpreted by the Arabs as weakness on our part," he said. "It is hard to believe that the discussions will only deal with a cease-fire, and will certainly also deal with diplomatic issues. In other words, this is negotiating under fire, which the government has decided against, because the Palestinians have not stopped the terrorism for even one day."
One diplomatic official, however, defended Peres's decision to meet with Arafat by saying that if the goal is to stop the violence, it will be necessary to talk to Arafat.
He added that Israel should not overestimate what some believe is now a free rein to deal more forcefully with terror as a result of the attacks in New York and Washington, DC, saying that although the world will be more understanding if Israel acts severely against suicide bombers, it will not give blanket approval for these types of actions whenever Israel deems them necessary.
As proof, the official pointed to a an angry complaint lodged with Israel yesterday by a "country that is central in Europe" about recent IDF actions in Jenin, where 10 Palestinians were killed in related clashes.
Channel 2 reported that Sharon did not want to embarrass Peres by blocking the meeting himself, and instead encouraged the ministers to come out against the meeting.
Former justice minister Yossi Beilin called on Labor ministers to prevent Sharon from calling Arafat "bin Laden" and block him from "using the American tragedy to fulfill his dream of being rid of our only peace partner."
jpost.com
-- Carl
P.S. I think the alternative to settling is to fight. But neither party wants the U.S. to fight a war with FAEs over a country that's barely wider than New York City. So of course they pretend that this time the negotiations are real. But they have political reasons to keep the pot stirred. |
