The PA is now starting to demand an extra 2km of Israel in the Gaza withdrawal. They're setting up their own Shabaa Farms type dispute to keep the conflict going. Good idea, from their point of view, since they are far too weak to ever consider making a settlement. If they can shift the topic of dispute onto some issue that's been settled for 55 years, it's brownie points for them, and a great excuse for not settling (So the Pals keep getting poorer, so what, the "international community" is always there for them).
This is why President Bush should never have mentioned the 1949 armistice lines in his speech, which he did, though I'm sure he meant them as synonymous with the 1967 border. But they are not exactly the same, and now the Pals are going to demand that every point of difference get renegotiated.
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PA demands further Gaza withdrawal
By NINA GILBERT
National Security Advisor and head of the National Security Council Maj.-Gen.(Res) Giora Eiland.
Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Mohammed Dahalan, in charge of coordinating disengagement with Israel, has raised questions on the status of the current Gaza Strip border demarcations, according to National Security Council chief Giora Eiland.
A moshav, Netiv Ha'asara, is situated in the disputed area.
In a review of disengagement preparations with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Eiland also said the tight schedule for the pullout would force more IDF soldiers to be involved in evacuating settlers. The initial plan had been for the police to physically remove the settlers while the IDF was to have provided peripheral security.
The four-week evacuation operation of Gaza and the northern West Bank is scheduled to start on August 15. Eiland said that despite pessimistic reports the government "is much better prepared than it looks."
At the same time, Eiland outlined a number of issues that have not yet been settled. These include the fate of the Philadelphi route; Israel's military and civilian status in the northern West Bank; customs into Gaza; and the evacuation of rubble from destroyed settler homes. Eiland said that if Israel were forced to evacuate the rubble, the work would complicate the evacuation.
The matter of borders was raised during discussions with Dahlan on new border entry points into Gaza.
According to Eiland, in talks with Israeli counterparts, Dahalan claimed the northern Gaza border had been moved 2 km to the south, and the Palestinians were demanding that it be recognized as such according to 1949 armistice lines.
But Eiland insisted Israel had made it "clear" to the Palestinians that the Gaza border recognized by Israel was set with Egypt in 1950 in a protocol with a map, and the same border was reconfirmed in 1994 under the Oslo accords. He said that the protocol had recognized a land swap in which the territory of the strip had been moved south by 2 km but had also moved to the east.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to appear before a joint session of the Knesset Law and Foreign Affairs and Defense committees on Tuesday to answer questions on preparedness.
Sharon had asked to send a stenographer from his office to Monday's meeting, but committee chairman Yuval Steinitz (Likud) rejected the request on grounds that it broke protocol. Instead, Sharon sent his Knesset liaison to the session. The liaison stated that he wanted to prepare Sharon for Tuesday's meeting, but was also removed from the session by Steinitz.
Eiland expressed concern over the close proximity of Khan Yunis to the Gaza settlements, and said that if there was shooting during the evacuation operation IDF forces might have to enter the area.
According to Eiland, 30 percent of the settlers, an estimated 2,000 people, to be evacuated have made no contact with the government Disengagement Authority regarding alternate housing accommodations. This hard-core group was likely to claim, after the disengagement, that they were left homeless.
jpost.com |
