<Sharon accepted the roadmap with certain reservations, which the US government did not contest.>
I am making the optimistic assumption, that Bush isn't going to let Sharon rewrite the Road Map. If he does, then Israel hasn't in fact agreed to anything yet, or made any concessions. Lots of settlements began as illegal, then got re-defined as legal, legal in the eyes of Israeli law, but not legal by anyone else's definition (American, Palestinian, UN).
If Sharon gets to make all the changes in the Road Map he wants to, then the plan becomes wholly one-sided, requiring many things of the Palestinians, and requiring them before Israel does anything substantive.
I wonder who will hold the ground in Bethlehem and Gaza, when (and if) the Israelis pull back. If it's Hamas, then the pull-back is going to be temporary.
I wonder if Israel intends to continue the policy of targetted assassinations, after the Palestinian groups negotiate a cease-fire. Sharon seems to be saying so. And I wonder if Bush is going to let the Israelis keep killing, when (and if) Hamas stops killing. |
