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Politics : Palestine, facts and history -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (83)	6/10/2002 10:03:49 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 770

So now let me ask the two "self-professed" American men: In the case of India and Pakistan the US worked with both the warring parties, India and Pakistan. They got support from the EU, China and Russia who all joined with the US to pressure both the warring countries. The result is a lessening of tensions, peace etc. as this Financial Times article suggests. Shouldn't the US adopt the same approach with the Israeli-Palestenian situation. Does Bush really feel that by refusing to meet with the Palestenians and succumbing to the American Jewish lobby, that the US can play a honest broker. Is that why it has failed to get the support of the other powers such as the EU, Russia and China? India moves towards peace with Pakistan By Edward Luce Published: June 10 2002 19:38 \| Last Updated: June 10 2002 19:38 India on Monday took the first unequivocal steps towards a peaceful conclusion of its unnerving six-month confrontation with Pakistan. But officials warned the process could still be put into reverse: New Delhi's strategy of "coercive diplomacy" had yet to achieve its ultimate aim - an irreversible cessation of all cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. Until then, the country's 1.2m army would remain fully mobilised. "India is making positive gestures towards Pakistan but they can be reversed," said B.G. Verghese, head of the Centre for Policy Studies in New Delhi. "Demobilisation of the Indian army will be the last step in this process." Monday's conciliatory gestures follow clear indications that cross-border infiltration into India's portion of the divided province of Kashmir has ceased in the past two weeks. It also follows the assurance given by General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, to the US last week that the suspension of cross-border terrorism would be made "permanent and irreversible". So what comes next? Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, who arrives in New Delhi tonight and travels to Islamabad tomorrow, will be seeking to capitalise on Monday's moves by pushing the two governments to hold direct talks. US diplomats have sought to calm the crisis, which last month threatened to spill over into military conflict, by encouraging a step-by-step process in which each country responds to the other with incremental confidence-building measures. Having restored direct air links to Pakistan on Monday and ordered its five battleships to withdraw from the Arabian Sea, India says the ball is now in Pakistan's court. Thus, apart from announcing later this week that it will send its high commissioner back to Islamabad, New Delhi plans no further gestures until it is has clear evidence that Pakistan is dismantling the "infrastructure" of terrorism in its portion of Kashmir. "Atal Behari Vajpayee [India's prime minister] promised that India would take two steps for every one step that Pakistan took," said a senior Indian official. "We have been true to our word. Now it is up to Pakistan to permanently close down these terrorist groups." India points out that Gen Musharraf promised once before - in a speech on 12 January - to close down the jihadi groups. But the two groups subsequently banned by Islamabad, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, simply shifted their headquarters to new sites and changed their names, they claim. However, western diplomats say that India will at some stage have no choice but to hold direct talks with Islamabad over Kashmir, a dispute that has led to three full-scale wars between the two countries since 1947. "Pakistan and India cannot keep moving from ceasefire to ceasefire," said Mr Verghese. "There is a feeling around the world that the Kashmir question must now be permanently resolved." Judged on its record so far, India's strategy of coercive diplomacy - or "nuclear blackmail", in the words of one diplomat - is delivering results. But more thoughtful policymakers in New Delhi know that the strategy also comes with a price tag. Having said for more than 50 years that Kashmir is a bilateral dispute, India will now have to accept some international mediation. One western diplomat says: "The US will not disengage from this region while Kashmir is unresolved. Nobody wants to live through nuclear brinksmanship again." news.ft.com