Is time for two states running out?
In an editorial last week the New York Times agreed that “with every passing year of increased Jewish settlement in [Palestinian] occupied areas, the possibility of cleanly dividing the land between two peoples fades. That is why there is such urgency to gaining support for the new peace initiatives...” That sense of urgency may at last be seeping into Israel's public debate. More commentators and politicians in the peace camp speak of the demographic danger threatening Israel as a Jewish democracy. Mr Sharon, though, still pooh-poohs it. The solution, he says, lies in getting more Jews to immigrate to Israel.
As to the current impasse, he says, the road map is still the way forward. Drawn up last year by the Americans, the European Union, Russia and the UN, it provides for a ceasefire and a settlement freeze, then the creation of a Palestinian state with “provisional” borders, and then a rather vague process for negotiating a final agreement. Beset by troubles in Iraq (see article), America may be losing interest in the road map. But Mr Sharon, rattled by the growing support at home for the two unofficial accords that he likes much less, is embracing the nebulous map with renewed, if belated, enthusiasm. |
