Daily Update
A weblog of the post 9/11 world
updated 11:00 a.m. ET December 3, 2003
Powell to meet with Geneva Accord authors
'I'm the US Secretary of State and I'll meet with whomever I want to meet with.'
The Washington Times reports this was
more or less the response US Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Tuesday after he was criticized by the Israeli government for his
plans to meet Friday with two of the main authors of the Geneva Accords. The
Geneva plan, launched on Monday by Israeli and Palestinian political figures, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the dismantling of most Jewish settlements.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday the
proposed three-way meeting was a "wrong step by a representative of the American administration." Israel's government has
denounced the unofficial accord, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has given it only lukewarm support. But Mr. Powell rejected the criticism leveled by Mr. Olmert.
"I do not know why I or anyone else in the US government should deny ourselves the opportunity to hear from others who are committed to peace and who have ideas," Mr. Powell told reporters while on a visit to Tunisia. The accord continues to generate a great deal of both
heat and light, several days after it was officially launched in Switzerland. Right-wing media in Israel
lambasted the ceremony, and some 250 right-wing rabbis
issued a ruling branding Israeli negotiators involved in drafting the accord as traitors. Meanwhile, militant Palestinian officials called it a "
a stab in the back for the Palestinians and a relinquishment of all their rights."
But the accord is also
picking up some key international endorsements. An editorial in
USA Today compared it to the 1976 efforts by
Catholic and Protestant women who organized the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (and who won a a Nobel Peace Prize for their work), which prodded the two warring sides towards a still-fragile peace agreement. The
Arab News writes that the accord shows that "
there can be a middle ground." And David Ignatuis, writing in the
Washington Post, says the accord deserves to be
given a chance.
"By sending a copy to every home in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the drafters allowed citizens on both sides to imagine a different future. I like the thought of Israelis and Palestinians sitting in their homes this week, looking over the maps and clauses of the Geneva accord, and telling each other, 'You know, maybe this isn't so crazy after all.'" Most observers believe that Powell is meeting with the accord officials because the Bush administration wants to
keep up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with whom the White House has become increasingly "frustrated." For instance, the
Washington Post reports the Israeli government has approved the construction of more than
1,720 new houses in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this year, despite the freeze on settlements mandated in the "roadmap to peace."
In fact,
Ha'aretz reports that the White House has warned Mr. Sharon "
not to rock the Mideast boat" before the 2004 elections in the United States, as reelecting President Bush has now beome the number one agenda item for the administration.
According to messages reaching Jerusalem from Washington, the Israeli side does not always seem to understand the American interests, and does not always help advance those interests. Therefore, administration officials have been reiterating to Israeli officials three "noes" or red lines that Israel has been asked not to cross: not to harm Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, not to upset the region, and not to take steps which create facts on the ground and could foil the future Palestinian state. But,
Ha'aretz also says the US still plans to "foil" a Palestinian effort to move the security fence issue to the international criminal court in The Hague. The fence itself continues to draw heated criticism. Recently Washington itself announced it would deduct $US 300 million from loan guarantees to Israel in protest at the construction of the fence. Last Friday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the barrier was "
deeply counter-productive." Tuesday at the United Nations, the government of India
launched a broadside on the barrier, while at the same time condemning Palestinian terrorism.
Tom Wallace executive director of MidEast Focus, writes about the barrier in
The Boston Globe. Mr. Wallace, who quotes recent statements made against the barrier by members of the Knesset and former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel's security service, calls the barrier "
Israel's unholy wall."
Whether you call it a security fence or an apartheid wall, its effect is the same: destruction, division, a loss of international sympathy toward Israel, and an increase in despair, hopelessness, and terrorism – and the cycle continues.
The Voice of America reports that Israel
continues to denounce international criticism of the barrier, and says its construction will continue as the government considers the barrier to be the best form of protection against suicide bombers.
Also...
•
The military needs Arab linguists, but it doesn't want this one because she's gay (
Washington Post)
•
A US combat leader at Samarra, Iraq: "Most of the casualties were civilians, not insurgents or criminals" (
Soldiers for the truth – sfft.org)
•
On the job with a Taliban recruiter (
Asia Times)
•
American dream, super-sized: Democracy cannot coexist with Bush's failed doctrine of preventive war (
Los Angeles Times)
•
Report: International oil firms complicit in human rights abuses in Sudan (
Albawaba.com)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
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