[Futurework] News from Jerusalem

[Karen Watters Cole]

There is a great deal besides the US budget and economics for the next decade being decided under cover of the Bombing of Baghdad.  Read this Op-Ed in reference to geopolitics of Blair and Bush, not just Sharon and Arafat.   I hope Devorah will share any comments she has regarding the current mood in Israel on the US “Road Map.” .-  KWC   People and Politics / The road map has no room for haggling By Akiva Eldar, in Ha’aretz, Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Adar2 21, 5763 Last Wednesday, when the eyes of the world were on the clock for the ultimatum given by President Bush to Saddam Hussein, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, took time out to listen to a report to the Security Council by the secretary-general's envoy to the Middle East, Terje Larsen. After Larsen folded up his papers, the ambassador asked for the floor. Negroponte's statement, which was prepared in advance and read aloud in the behind-closed-doors session, puts an end to the efforts of Prime Minister Sharon to lower a curtain between the U.S. and other Quartet members. On Saturday, Israel Radio carried an item quoting Sharon's bureau as claiming the State Department is spreading false rumors that the deadline is over for handing in appeals against the Quartet plan. Israel Radio said the White House supports Sharon's demand to continue negotiations to correct the road map. A document that reached the hands of Haaretz - and presumably Sharon - leaves only two options open: either the map on the desk in the Prime Minister's Office since December 20 is the only map and no other counts, or the American ambassador to the UN does not represent the U.S. president. DAHLAN: Unlucky backing According to minutes taken during Negroponte's statement, the ambassador said that at the end of last year the U.S. and the other members of the Quartet agreed on the language of the road map, which details the necessary steps to implement President Bush's vision of two states for two peoples. President Bush reconfirmed his commitment to "this road map" as the framework for the implementation of the goals presented in his speech of June 24 last year. Pay attention to the word "this," meaning the president regards the Quartet road map as the fulfillment of his vision, and not the Herzliya speech, for example, which Sharon claims represents "understandings" he reached with Bush. Negroponte also reminded the Security Council that Bush has declared he is ready to deliver the road map to the sides as soon as an empowered prime minister takes office in the Palestinian Authority.  Abu Mazen's appointment was confirmed last week and he is currently putting together his government. Negroponte summed up by saying explicitly there is no more room for haggling over the road map. The sides, he said, should focus on implementing the goals of a two-state solution as set out in the road map, and not on negotiations or discussions of the map itself. A similar message, which went over the weekend to Prime Minister Tony Blair, convinced one of his cabinet ministers at the last minute not to hand in her letter of resignation. The road map has become the last fig leaf on Blair's body. If Bush takes it off Sharon's table at the last minute, he'll totally expose his British friend. It would be the irony of history if, at the end of the day, it is the British who make sure the Israeli mandate over Palestine comes to an end. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of the road map is in its delivery.    Some trivia from the backyard That obscure Security Council session, which took place while Bush was reporting to the world about the suffering of the Iraqi people, heard a 40-minute report by Larsen, who included the following information: During the last 30 months, 2,501 Palestinians were killed (an average of 83 a month) and 724 Israelis were killed (an average of 24 a month). During 27 months of closure and other limits on freedom of movement, the gross national product in the Palestinian Authority declined by $5.4 billion, the equivalent of one year's income of the residents of the territories. Half the workers in the Palestinian private sector have lost their livelihoods. The PA's debt to suppliers is now at $370 million. High schools students are dropping out in droves, since they see no point in continuing their studies. Teachers report a dramatic rise in violence in the schools. Social workers are reporting growing violence toward women. Food consumption per capita has dropped by 30 percent.   Larsen said there was no way to halt the deterioration of both security and humanitarian conditions except by renewing the negotiations and simultaneously conducting economic rehabilitation and security coordination. He links an end to Palestinian violence, wherever it takes place, to an end to the assassinations, house demolitions, and land expropriations by Israel. The UN's envoy to the Middle East and the Quartet also presented a firm demand on the issue of the settlements, and does not make do with a settlement freeze (including construction for "natural growth") and says Israel must immediately dismantle all the outposts established in the last two years.   He saves Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz some study time on the issue of the illegal outposts. The UN envoy, based in Gaza, reminds the Security Council that the determining date for the settlement freeze is March 2001, when Sharon commited himself to his Labor Party partners in the unity government there would be no new settlements.  (end of excerpt) http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=276442&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y&itemNo=276442 Outgoing mail scanned by NAV 2002

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HAARETZ Road Map has no room for haggling.doc
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