|
www.barrychamish.com
NO WAY, THEY WON'T CATCH
ON
by Barry Chamish
In the wake of the Gush
Katif/Shomron rape, somehow Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief connected me to a
very optimistic
viewpoint:
The disengagement from Gaza and two West Bank settlements is
complete. The settlers only put up token resistance and were met with
overwhelming power. Barry Chamish, Israel's most effective voice for guiding the
Israeli faithful out of the clutches of the Sharon betrayals, was justifiably
depressed by the failure of the settlers to make a stand, or to heed his
warnings about how the movement was infiltrated ahead of time.
But I remain
optimistic for the long-term, believing that the God of Israel is merely paying
out sufficient rope to let these treacherous Jewish leaders of Israel hang
themselves someday. There is only so much unarmed settlers can do to fight the
all-powerful state. I hope Barry's voice is preserved for the sake of the
hundreds who continue to wake up to his warning voice each year. Someday it may
be enough to make a difference. Even if they have lost this battle, they must
never fail to learn the lessons of that failure -- the main one being that the
right wing must never trust the Likud again nor any of its leaders who are
connected to the US and European globalist establishment, like Benjamin
Netanyahu, waiting in the wings.
I wish I
shared this assessment. I reply, "No Way. These Jews will never catch on." Watch
them support Netanyahu. Watch their protest leaders demonstrate against all the
wrong people. Watch the mistakes compound each other. It's only getting worse
since the disaster.
Example One: Many people cited
Daniel Pipes' post-pullout piece as proof that he's in their camp.
It means
nothing that he is the director of the Middle East Forum of the Council On
Foreign Relations (CFR).
| A Democracy Killing Itself
|
Daniel Pipes - Monday, August 15, 2005
The
Israeli government's removal of its own citizens from Gaza ranks as one of the
worst errors ever made by a democracy. This step is the worse for being
self-imposed, not the result of pressure from Washington. When the Bush
administration first heard in December 2003 that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon had unilaterally decided to pull all soldiers and civilians from Gaza, it
responded coolly. Months of persuasion were needed to get the White House to
embrace the
initiative.
Can you imagine a more cynical trough of horse manure? Look at Pipes protect his
CFR buddies! No pressure from Washington?
Self-Imposed?
Once and
for all, let us state the obvious: the CFR is destroying Israel. That is its
intent and Pipes is deliberately deluding the
Jews.
Without further
commentary, we present the case against the CFR. Afterward, watch how the
Jews fail to digest this mass of cold, unforgiving, unmistakable
evidence:
http://www.nysun.com/article/19031
Mystery Solved
New York Sun Editorial
Tuesday,
August 23, 2005
One of the little-noticed virtues of the Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza, completed yesterday, is that it puts in sharp relief one
of the questions of the Middle East debate that has puzzled us in recent years,
centering on the Council on Foreign Relations and Henry Siegman. The council's
Web site describes Mr. Siegman as "senior fellow and director, U.S./Middle East
Project" and also as "foremost expert on the Middle East peace process .. and
U.S. Middle East Policy." Yet his writings over the past few years are hard to
distinguish from the hard-line propaganda of the Arab tyrannies.
A
visitor to the Council's Web site yesterday could view in its archives an
interview with Mr. Siegman by a former foreign editor of the New York Times,
Bernard Gwertzman, under the headline, "Siegman: Sharon Unlikely to Carry Out
Plans to Withdraw from Gaza." In the interview, Mr. Gwertzman asks Mr. Siegman,
"Why won't the withdrawal take place?" Mr. Siegman answers in all apparent
seriousness that Mr. Sharon lacks majority support for his plan in the Israeli
parliament.
It's now clear that Mr. Siegman's assessment in October 2004 was
precisely wrong. It's hardly the first time. America's Middle East policy, in
Mr. Siegman's analysis, is the result of how "Sharon manipulates Washington," as
he put it in an April 26, 2004, article in the International Herald Tribune. A
similar theme is conveyed in cartoons in the Arab press, labeled as anti-Semitic
by the Anti-Defamation League, depicting Mr. Sharon as a puppeteer manipulating
President Bush.
Mr. Siegman has said Israel is worse than the terrorist
leader Yasser Arafat. "Surely depriving the freedom of 3.5 million Palestinians
and subjugating them to a military occupation for nearly two generations is a
more fundamental and egregious offense to basic democratic values than the
authoritarianism of Arafat, who at least came to office in a free and democratic
internationally supervised election," Mr. Siegman wrote on February 27, 2003, in
the International Herald Tribune. He suggested that U.S. policy-makers who think
that "our actions in Iraq will inspire admiration and trigger regionwide
democratic change better check what they are smoking." The smoke had barely
cleared when American actions in Iraq did trigger regionwide democratic change
and admiration from Beirut to Cairo and beyond.
So why would the Council
on Foreign Relations, a New York-based American institution, fund this "expert"
at the level of $204,151 in salary and benefits, making him, in the most recent
year for which tax returns are available, its fourth-highest paid employee? It
turns out that much of the funding for the Council's "U.S./Middle East Project"
comes from overseas, including the European Commission, the government of
Norway, Kuwaiti and Saudi businessmen, a Lebanese politician, and, for one year,
an official of the commercial arm of the Palestinian Authority, Munib
Masri.
Mr. Siegman tells us that his views have been consistent over his
career and that his project's funding sources - which he points out are a matter
of public record - haven't influenced his opinions. A spokeswoman for the
Council says that there is no connection between funding sources and any
scholar's opinions. The editor in charge of the opinion page at the
International Herald Tribune, Serge Schmemann, says that the paper never asked
about, and Mr. Siegman never mentioned, where his money was coming from. Editors
at the New York Review of Books, where Mr. Siegman also publishes, did not
return our phone calls seeking comment.
Why aren't the New York Review of
Books and the New York Times-owned IHT disclosing that the man attacking Israel
in their pages is being supported by European governments and non-American Arab
businessmen? The Times itself has an integrity policy requiring freelance
contributors to "avoid conflicts of interest, real or apparent," yet the Times
ran an op-ed piece by Mr. Siegman in 2002 identifying him only as "a senior
fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations." If the publications had made the
disclosure, their readers could draw their own
conclusions.
___________________________________________________
© 2005
The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights reserved.
** I am grateful to my correspondent Elisheva Rubin for gathering
more cold facts and for proving that not all Jews can be fooled. Take your time
and read. I won't be back until the end of this section:
**
----------------
An Open Letter to:
The C.F.R. - Council on Foreign Relations
&
Judith Kipper,
CFR Director, Middle East Forum
Is the CFR a "Nonpartisan Think
Tank"?
CFR Books discuss "turning refugees into citizens".
-
But the CFR policy in Israel has done the reverse:
Turned law-abiding, income
producing Jewish citizens:
Into displaced persons and refugees.
How
can anyone think that the recent Pogrom on the Jews of Israel is acceptable
"foreign policy"?
http://www.cfr.org
http://www.cfr.org/thinktank/?jsessionid=154d05d5e29ecf31d8c74e3311c70da2
FULL C.F.R. "NONPARTISAN" ARTICLE -
BELOW
Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to Offer Palestinians Full
Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman Interviewee: Henry Siegman
August 22,
2005
Introducing [L to R]: C.F.R. President Richard
Haass;
Judith Kipper, Director, Middle East Forum;
James M. Lindsay Vice President, Director of Studies,
and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
-- -
Refugees and the Displaced
- January 1997
Refugees into Citizens: Palestinians and the End of the
Arab-Israeli Conflict By Donna E. Arzt Book
See more in Refugees and the Displaced
April 10, 2003
Internally Displaced Persons
in Iraq: A Potential Crisis?
By Arthur C. Helton and
Gil Loescher
Op-Ed See more in Iraq, International Peace and Security
January 18,
2003 The World's Refugee Crisis By Arthur C. Helton Op-Ed
January 9, 2003 Building the Capacity to Re-Integrate Angolan
Returnees Transcript - See more in Sub-Saharan Africa
November 19, 2002 The Repatriation of Angolan Refugees and Internally Displaced
Persons
Other Report See more in Sub-Saharan Africa
November 10, 2002 Tide of Refugees Could Swamp War Effort By Arthur
C. Helton and Gil Loescher Op-Ed
July 16, 2002 War on Terror Hurts Refugees Too By Arthur C. Helton Op-Ed
See more in Terrorism, Society and Culture
Richard N.
Haass, President - Phone: 212-434-9543; For all media requests,
contact: Lisa Shields at 212-434-9888 or lshields@xxxxxxx E-mail: president@xxxxxxx
- Judith Kipper,
Director, Middle East Forum - Phone: 202-518-3416
E-mail: jkipper@xxxxxxx
James M. Lindsay, Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice
R. Greenberg Chair Tel: 212-434-9627 E-mail: aalpha@xxxxxxx
President Richard N. Haass
Richard
Haass, a former director of policy planning in the State Department, is
president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
"There is a growing
awareness in Israel that the current situation -- one of open-ended Israeli
occupation of lands mostly populated by Palestinians -- is inconsistent with
Israel's determination to remain a secure, prosperous, Jewish and democratic
state..."
http://www.cfr.org/bios/3350/richard_haass.html Biography
Excerpts: Experience: Richard
Haass is President of the Council on Foreign Relations, a position he has held
since July 2003. The Council, based in New York with an office in Washington,
DC, is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center
for scholars dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas so that individual
and corporate members, as well as policymakers, journalists, students, and
interested citizens in the United States and other countries, can better
understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and
other governments.
Until June 2003, Richard Haass was Director of Policy
Planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal advisor to
Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns.
Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador,
Communications Contacts:
Lisa Shields Vice
President 212-434-9888 lshields@xxxxxxx
Marie Strauss Deputy Director
212-434-9536 mstrauss@xxxxxxx
Anya Schmemann Communications Manager DC Office 202-518-3419 aschmemann@xxxxxxx
Kathleen
Zimmerman Assistant Director 212-434-9537 kzimmerman@xxxxxxx
Amy Gunning Communications
Coordinator 212-434-9679 agunning@xxxxxxx
------- More on Pres. Haass: CFR on GUSH KATIF POGROM
http://www.cfr.org/publication/7734/lets_seize_opportunity_while_we_can.html
Let's Seize Opportunity While We Can
Author: Richard N. Haass
February 6, 2005
Miami Herald
Let's seize opportunity while we can.
== INSERT: CFR on GUSH KATIF POGROM
http://www.cfr.org/index.html
On
reading the CFR materials, one gets the decided impression that the CFR not only
supported the Pogrom on the Jews of Gush Katif, and others; But possibly created
it.
Direct links to the Israel Gov sites promoting it.
None of the
material even remotely addresses the harm it has
caused.
---------
CFR - COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS - ON "GAZA
WITHDRAWAL"
THE SPIN GOES ON!
Major Stories
GAZA
WITHDRAWAL
Israel completes its withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank and issues
orders to seize Palestinian land near the West Bank?s
largest settlement, Maale Adumim, to secure its border.
Background and
analysis: NEW Gwertzman interview with
Council Fellow Henry Siegman (CFR); NEW Background
Q&A on the Gaza Withdrawal (CFR); Gwertzman
interview with former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross (CFR); CFR Fellow
Max Boot on the Gaza pullout (Los Angeles
Times)Resources and documents: Sharon?s
August 22 statement (Office of Israel?s Prime Minister); Documents on Israel's disengagement plan (Office of
Israel?s Prime Minister); Brief on Israel?s
disengagement plan (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
August 24, 2005 What Does
Democracy Look Like? By Steven A. Cook Op-Ed See more in
Democracy Promotion
August 22, 2005 Israel's Leaders Are Now Freer to Make Tough
Choices By Henry Siegman Op-Ed See more in
Israel
August 22, 2005 Siegman: Crucial for
Sharon to Offer Palestinians Full Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending
Violence Henry Siegman interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman
Interview See more in Israel, Palestinian Authority, Peacemaking
August 18, 2005
MIDDLE EAST: The Gaza
Withdrawal By Esther Pan Background Q&A See more in
Israel,
Palestinian Authority
August 17, 2005 Hamastan? Gaza Pullout Is Worth the Risk By Max
Boot Op-Ed See more in Israel
August 16, 2005
Ross: The United States Should be More
Involved in Follow-up to Israeli Withdrawal from Gaza Dennis B. Ross interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman Interview See more in
Israel
------------
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/DisengagemePlan/
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Israels+Disengagement+Plan-+Renewing+the+Peace+Process+Apr+2005.htm
Israel's Disengagement Plan: Renewing the Peace Process
20
Apr 2005
Introduction -
Hope for the prospects of peace has revived in recent months. The death
of Yasser Arafat and the election of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, have fostered
the expectation of a new era in relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Within this context, Israel?s Disengagement Plan, introduced in December 2003,
should be seen as an important step forward.
Ever since the 1967 Six Day
War brought Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip under Israel?s
administration, their status has been in contention. Israel was forced to wage
that war in self-defense, and the disputed territories were held not as the
object of conquest, but to be part of eventual negotiations for lasting
peace.
====> back to CFR
President Haass oped promoting the destruction of Israel ====>
It has been a long time since the words opportunity and Middle
East appeared in the same sentence. But now they are. Even better, this optimism
may have some basis in reality. One important reason for this change in attitude
is, of course, Yasser Arafat's disappearance from the scene. Like the Thane of
Cawdor in Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Nothing in his life became him like the
leaving it."
Arafat never grew beyond the man who appeared at the United
Nations decades ago with both an olive branch and a gun. His unwillingness to
jettison terror and choose diplomacy proved his undoing, as he lost legitimacy
in the eyes of both Israel and the United States. The result was the failure to
create a Palestinian state.
But it is not simply Arafat's passing that
provides cause for optimism. We now have a Palestinian leadership legitimized by
elections, one that appears to be opposed to using terrorism as a tool to
achieve political aims. Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has a good record of
questioning the wisdom of the intifada that has taken too many lives and caused
only misery and destruction on all sides.
Changes in Israel are also
contributing to the mood swing. There is a growing awareness in Israel that the
current situation -- one of open-ended Israeli occupation of lands mostly
populated by Palestinians -- is inconsistent with Israel's determination to
remain a secure, prosperous, Jewish and democratic state.
The formation of a
new Israeli government, one more centrist in its composition and support, is
another positive development. Israel is now led by a prime minister who has the
ability to make historic choices and a government inclined to support him.
But opportunity is just that. Middle East history is replete with examples
of missed and lost chances to make peace. The challenge now is to break this
pattern and turn today's opportunity into reality.
Govern responsibly
This requires that the promised Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of
the West Bank succeed. But "success" entails more than departing Israelis. It
also requires that Palestinians demonstrate that they can govern responsibly and
that they can put an end to terrorist violence emanating from Palestinian soil.
What happens in Gaza after Israel leaves will have a profound impact on
Israeli politics. If Gaza turns into a lawless failed state, one that is a base
for attacks on Israelis, it will be difficult to persuade Israel to withdraw
from other areas that it now occupies. But if Palestinians in Gaza demonstrate
that they can rule themselves and be a good neighbor, a key justification for
Israel's continuing occupation elsewhere will weaken.
Palestinians will need
help if things are to turn out right in Gaza. The United States, Europe and Arab
states such as Egypt, along with Russia and the United Nations, all have a
responsibility to assist Abbas. Palestinians need financial and technical help
to build up a unified and capable security establishment, to revive a moribund
economy and to build a modern, transparent political system.
Domestic
challenges
It is also important that the Gaza withdrawal be a beginning, not
an end, to the political process. There must be a link between what takes place
in Gaza and a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian question if Abbas is
to persuade a majority of his people that diplomacy and compromise deliver more
than violence and confrontation.
Here, too, there is an important role for
America to play. In fact, the United States has already begun to do what is
required. In a September 2004 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
President Bush reassured Israelis that it was "unrealistic to expect that the
outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the
armistice lines of 1949." The framework for a solution to the Palestinian
refugee issue "will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian
state and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel."
These promises meant a great deal to Sharon as he faced domestic political
challenges. What is needed now is a parallel letter from Bush to Abbas. Such a
letter could spell out the U.S. commitment to a viable, contiguous, sovereign
and independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, with compensation
provided by Israel wherever territorial adjustments are agreed.
Territorial
return
In return, Palestinians would need to pledge to reject the use of
violence and terror once and for all. The United States should not, however,
make the establishment of a full Palestinian democracy a prerequisite for
territorial return and peace. To delay negotiations until Palestinian democracy
matured would only persuade Palestinians that diplomacy was a ruse and give many
a reason to turn to violence.
After more than a half-century of
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, translating opportunity into reality will be
difficult enough without introducing new requirements that, however desirable,
are not essential.
Judith Kipper: Expert on
Israel???
- Judith Kipper Director, Middle East
Forum - Contact Info: Phone: 202-518-3416 E-mail: jkipper@xxxxxxx
Location: Washington,
District of Columbia
Israel July 2,
2003 Mideast Expert Sees 'New Chapter' in Push for
Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Judith Kipper interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman Interview
See more in Israel, Palestinian
Authority
Media downloads: additional
CV (DOC, 28K)
Expertise: Middle East and Persian Gulf regional
developments and threats; Arab-Israeli peace process; Islamic trends;
U.S.-Middle East policy.
Experience: Former Co-director, Middle East
Studies Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (current);
consultant to ABC News (current); Guest Scholar, Brookings Institution
(1987-95); Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute (1980-86); former
consultant to RAND on international affairs.
Education: B.A.,
University of California, Los Angeles.
Selected Publications: The
Middle East in Global Perspective (co-editor, 1991).
Research
Projects Energy Security
Group Middle East Forum
Judith Kipper Director, Middle East Forum
Middle East analyst with expertise in U.S. Middle East policy, regional
politics and development, Arab-Israeli peace process, Gulf region, Iran, and
Iraq.
Expertise: Middle East and Persian Gulf regional
developments and threats; Arab-Israeli peace process; Islamic trends;
U.S.-Middle East policy.
Phone: 202-518-3416 Email: jkipper@xxxxxxx
- - - The CFR Think
Tank -
James M. Lindsay Vice
President, Director of Studies, and
Maurice R. Greenberg
Chair
Welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations? Studies Program.
We are the Council?s ?think tank.? We are a key part of the Council?s mission to
produce and disseminate ideas so that individual and corporate members, as well
as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the United
States and other countries, can better understand the world and the
foreign-policy choices facing the United States and other governments. We do
that by thinking, writing, and speaking about a broad range of foreign-policy
issues.
The Think Tank
The Studies Department
The Studies
Department, the ?think tank,? is the central element in achieving the Council?s
goal of adding value to the foreign policy debate. Studies does this primarily
by conducting research on and writing about U.S. foreign policy challenges
whether long term or more immediate.
For more information on the Studies
Department, contact: James M. Lindsay Vice President,
Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
Tel: 212-434-9627
E-mail: aalpha@xxxxxxx
Lee Feinstein
Deputy Director of Studies
Tel: 202-518-3412 E-mail: lfeinstein@xxxxxxx
Janine Hill Associate Director
of Studies
Tel: 212-434-9753 E-mail: jhill@xxxxxxx
http://www.cfr.org/thinktank/fellows.html
Rachel Bronson Senior Fellow and Director, Middle
East and Gulf Studies - Director of a joint Council-Baker Institute
report on post-conflict Iraq; expert on U.S. security and foreign policy
toward the Middle East, particularly the Persian Gulf. Consultant for
NBC.
Expertise: U.S. national security and foreign policy toward
the Middle East; Middle East politics and strategy, particularly in the Persian
Gulf; Iraq.
Isobel Coleman Senior
Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy
Expert on economic development in the Middle
East and South Asia; director of a Council on Foreign Relations initiative on
women and U.S. foreign policy, focusing on the role of women in economic and
political development in the broader Middle East.
Expertise:
Economic development; Afghanistan; women's initiatives in the Middle East and
Southwest Asia; international trade; aid to developing countries; microfinance;
and education reform in the Middle East.
Phone:
212-434-9771 Email: icoleman@xxxxxxx
Steven A.
Cook Douglas Dillon Fellow
Expert on Arab politics,
political reform in the Middle East, U.S. Middle East policy, and Turkish
politics.
Expertise: Arab politics; Political reform in the Arab
world; Turkish politics; Civil-military relations in the Middle East;
U.S.-Middle East policy; Arab-Israeli conflict.
Phone: 212-434-9644
Email: scook@xxxxxxx
http://www.cfr.org/region/publication_list.html?id=406
- Israel related articles.
Peacemaking
August 22, 2005
Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to Offer
Palestinians Full Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence
Henry
Siegman interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman Interview
See more in Palestinian
Authority, Peacemaking
July 27, 2005
Mideast Road Map Essential
Documents - Plan
See more in Middle East,
Palestinian Authority, Peacemaking
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8728/siegman.html
Siegman: Crucial for Sharon to Offer Palestinians Full
Peace Negotiations in Return for Ending Violence
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman Interviewee: Henry Siegman
August 22, 2005
Henry Siegman, the Council?s top expert on Israeli and
Palestinian issues, says that in the aftermath of the successful withdrawal of
Israelis from Gaza, it is imperative for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to offer
President Mahmoud Abbas a return to full negotiations on all aspects of the
so-called ?road map? to peace if the Palestinian
leader can put an end to violence against Israel.
?If Sharon will take the
position that Israel will not move on the road map until all violence comes to
an end, without adding that if the Palestinians succeed in ending the violence,
then Israel is prepared to negotiate all the issues included in the road map?
the pre-1967 border, the capital of a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, trading
territories in order to accommodate the major Israeli settlement blocks in the
West Bank, etc.?then it will be clear he is using the security issue to
prevent a peace process, and the Gaza withdrawal was nothing more than a ploy to
gain time for the deepening of Jewish settlements in the West Bank,? says
Siegman, senior fellow and director of the U.S./Middle East Project at the
Council on Foreign Relations. ?If he makes it clear that Palestinian success in
dealing with terror will create a genuine Palestinian state, then we?re on the
way back to the road map.?
Siegman was interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman,
consulting editor for cfr.org, on August 22, 2005.
With the Israelis now
having concluded the withdrawal of settlers from the Gaza strip, what?s your
impression of the way the operation was handled?
I think it went far
better than anyone could have anticipated. There were instances where the
Israeli military seemed to be more tolerant than circumstances required. Some
people may ask: If the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) can show this kind of
forbearance toward Israeli settlers even when they break the law?some of them in
very outrageous ways?how can they justify their behavior in dealing with
demonstrations by Arabs who are Israeli citizens, and also Palestinians on the
other side of the border, who hold non-violent demonstrations to protest Israeli
government?s policies? As we know, in previous instances where Israeli Arabs
were involved, several were killed by the Israeli police. That?s not to take
away any credit from the way [the IDF] handled the settlers, but it does raise
some serious questions [about] whether it is necessary for them to be as brutal
as they often are in dealing with Israeli Arabs or Palestinians.
How did
you think the Palestinians acted during this withdrawal period?
They
showed the kind of restraint responsible people hoped they would by not engaging
in activities that would have made it impossible for [Prime Minister Ariel]
Sharon to continue the withdrawal, or to provide fodder for criticism by
Sharon?s opponents. So on balance, the Palestinians, particularly President
Mahmoud Abbas, behaved very well. I also have to say Hamas, who most people
believed would act irresponsibly and attack the Israelis, also behaved well. I
think the reason they didn?t [attack] is not necessarily out of compassion for
the settlers or consideration for Sharon, but because they understood the
Palestinian public would have been very angry with them?and they would have lost
a great deal of political support?had they attacked the IDF or the settlers
during the withdrawal.
What are the next political steps for both the
Israeli and Palestinian sides in coming weeks and months?
Sharon has a
number of issues he has to deal with, all of them complex, and they fall under
two major headings. The first one is Gaza itself. If Sharon wants this
withdrawal to be a bridge towards the resumption of the peace process?and to
make sure Gaza is not turned into a hotbed of renewed terrorism?then he must do
certain things that would enable Palestinians in Gaza to revive their economy,
to create a political horizon for a return to the peace process, and more
specifically, [to help them achieve] a Palestinian state, so they do not come to
the conclusion that this was indeed what Sharon intended?Gaza first and Gaza
last?as some critics were saying all along.
What are these things that
Sharon has to do?
He has to open the borders and place them under
international supervision. [This will] enable the Gazans to conduct trade and
have free movement of people and goods, subject to international controls at the
crossing points, both to the West Bank itself?so there is secure access for
Gazans to the West Bank?and also to Egypt, Jordan and the rest of the world.
There will not be any investment in Gaza if Gaza doesn?t have the opportunity to
trade with the rest of the world and export its agricultural and manufactured
goods. That?s absolutely key.
This also requires that the airport be
reopened. Palestinians also need a seaport, but that?s for the future. It will
take them at least three years to build a seaport, which only emphasizes the
importance of opening these other points of entry and exit into Gaza. If that
does not happen, Gaza will be turned into a large prison.
Has Israel at
this point agreed to any of these issues?
There?s no final agreement on
any of them. Sharon has said Israel is looking at these matters, but so far [he]
has made no definitive commitments.
Is there a timetable for Israel on
this? It?s going to be a while before Palestinians move into this area,
right?
The need to open up Gaza to outside investment, to manufacturing,
to a revived agriculture, all of that is immediate, and is not dependant on
moving [Palestinians] into the area where settlements existed.
Is [former
president of the World Bank] James Wolfensohn, a special U.S. envoy on economic
questions, working on this problem too?
He is. He has an incredibly
difficult job and is doing it as well as anyone can. What he?s doing there, from
my point of view, is truly amazing.
What is he doing?
He has
defined the issues and [determined] what Gaza needs to succeed. He has
personally helped raise public money from governments and public institutions
like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the European
Union, and has [also] raised money from the private sector. For example, he put
together $14 million dollars toward a much larger sum of money, most of which is
public money, for the purchase of the greenhouses?
?the greenhouses and
the dairy.
Right. They were bought from the settlers so they could be
left in place and used by the Gaza Palestinians. And he personally contributed
half a million dollars toward the purchase of those greenhouses. So he?s doing
an outstanding job. But in the end, it is the government of Israel that has to
agree to these arrangements.
And the second set of issues for
Sharon?
They deal with the political process, particularly returning to
the road map and the peace process. And that means, at the very least, he must
finally put an end to the expansion of settlements; he must finally keep his
word about dismantling the illegal outposts; and he must also halt plans for
construction in East Jerusalem, whose express purpose is to prevent the
establishment of a capital in any part of East Jerusalem for a future
Palestinian state. These are the things he must do now. They?re all demanded and
required by the road map. These are things he must do if Palestinians are not to
conclude that withdrawal from Gaza was not intended to renew the peace process,
but rather to deepen Israel?s occupation of the West Bank. And if they do come
to that conclusion, then we can say goodbye to Abu Mazen [Mohammed Abbas? nom
de guerre], to the peace process, and to the possibility of Gaza itself
succeeding in terms of its economy and governance.
The Palestinians have
scheduled their parliamentary elections for the end of January. Will there
likely be an Israeli election in the same time period?
There?s likely to
be one. We don?t know that yet.
Is Sharon?s popularity now high or
low?
His popularity remains higher than that of any other politician in
Israel, despite the unhappiness of the extreme right wing and the settlers.
However, his popularity among members of the Likud party is not high. There?s a
great deal of disenchantment and even anger with him, and former Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu is now seeking to take advantage of that anger to run against
him and to replace him as the Likud candidate for prime minister in the next
election.
The polls have shown Netanyahu enjoys greater support than Sharon
within the Likud. Those same polls have also shown that if Sharon were to decide
to leave the Likud?if he were to come to the conclusion that he cannot defeat
Netanyahu, and instead establish a new centrist party drawing on some of the
more moderate members of the Likud and more importantly, moderate Israelis
generally, and get Shimon Peres and his Labor Party and the Shinui [a secular
Israeli party] to join with him?such a party would emerge in the next election
as dominant and would form the next government.
And this centrist party, I
assume, would be more willing to go to road map negotiations?
Yes,
exactly. And what also would make it possible for such a centrist party to do
that?to return to the road map, which means doing some difficult things?is the
fact that as a consequence of the experiences Israelis have had this past week,
there is a fairly widespread disenchantment with the settlers. Israelis no
longer see them as the best and the brightest but as a danger to the country and
its democracy. Israelis may now feel more confident about taking the risk of
doing some difficult things required by the road map that they would not have
considered doing before, when they feared the power and influence of the
settlers. The settlers emerge from this confrontation considerably weakened, a
shadow of what they were before.
That?s interesting because in the United
States, so much TV footage has been of the settlers, showing them in a very
sympathetic light. But the same TV images in Israel did not win them much
support?
No, it did not. I think the Israelis generally empathized with
their anguish, but there?s been a demystification of the settlers. And I think
this will have serious political consequences. I think from the point of view of
the peace process, that is one of the most positive outcomes of this encounter
between the largely secular and centrist Jewish public in Israel and the
settlers.
What about the Palestinians? What do they have to
do?
What Palestinians need to do most importantly is to clean up their
own government. Their government under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmed
Qurei is comprised of many people who are held in contempt by the Palestinian
public. They are seen as self-dealing, as corrupt, and as simply politically
inept. For a long time now, the Palestinian public has been furious that they
have been allowed to stay in office.
Abu Mazen?s greatest challenge is to
replace these people and to open up the Fatah component of the Palestinian
Authority?which is by far its most important political component?to new
elections, which have been resisted by the old guard. He must allow new young
people, referred to as the young guard, to run for office and to replace these
people. That?s one of the most important things he has to do. Equally important,
he has to take some tough measures on the security front. He must finally create
a security system that is in fact under the control of the central government.
So far, he has not done so.
Is that because he?s not able to?
He is
far too weak. He has two problems: first, he is too weak politically. If he were
to try to take on Hamas, he would trigger a Palestinian civil war that the
Palestinian public would not support. He must first show that his opposition to
violence and terror produces tangible benefits for the Palestinian population,
which the intifada and those advocating violence could not produce. And
[second] he must also show that [his way] produces a credible political path to
Palestinian statehood. There is an interdependence here between what he is able
to do and what Sharon is willing to do. And Sharon has to allow the
strengthening of the Palestinian security forces that were destroyed during the
intifada by the IDF. So Israel has to permit Abu Mazen to rebuild that security
structure. So far, Israel has opposed even allowing the Palestinian Authority?s
security forces to obtain the new vehicles and arms they need to confront Hamas.
Sharon cannot say to Abu Mazen, ?You may not have the arms and you may not have
the necessary equipment to confront the terrorists, but you must dismantle
them.?
So there is a very real interdependence between the two. Neither Abbas
nor Sharon can succeed without each of them doing what the other needs to
succeed.
Should the United States get more involved than it is
now?
The United States has become more involved than it had been in the
past, but so far mostly on the rhetorical level. [Secretary of State]
Condoleezza Rice has taken a more personal role and State Department officials
have been there as well, on a fairly regular basis. But the question of whether
the Bush administration is prepared to put some real political muscle behind the
rhetoric remains unanswered. And the pressure must begin with Sharon, because
Sharon still insists he is nowhere near returning to the road map.
What
is the single most important thing in getting the parties back to the peace
process?
There are, of course, many factors that are important if the
Gaza withdrawal is to lead to a sustainable peace process. But if I have to
identify the most important one, I would say it is how Prime Minister Sharon
will deal with the security issue. If Sharon will take the position that Israel
will not move on the road map until all violence comes to an end, without adding
that if the Palestinians succeed in ending the violence, then Israel is prepared
to negotiate all the issues included in the road map? the pre-1967 border, the
capital of a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, trading territories in order to
accommodate the major Israeli settlement blocks in the West Bank, etc.?then it
will be clear he is using the security issue to prevent a peace process,
and the Gaza withdrawal was nothing more than a ploy to gain time for the
deepening of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If he makes it clear that
Palestinian success in dealing with terror will create a genuine Palestinian
state, then we?re on the way back to the road map. If all he says is, ?First I
want an end to terror and then we?ll see,? then a return to violence is
inevitable.
--- Copyright 2005 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All
Rights Reserved. ---------
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