Out of Gaza, Israel courts its neighbors

Alongside the surprising alacrity with which Israel left Gaza after 38 years of occupation, some Muslim and Arab nations - most officially at war with the Jewish state - are showing a keenness to view disengagement as a step toward relations with Israel.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who turned Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) this week, is eager to reap the international benefits of the withdrawal to offset criticism at home, particularly in his own right-wing Likud party.

At the United Nations Wednesday, he shook hands with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf following a first-ever meeting earlier this month of the two countries' foreign ministers in Turkey.

But Israeli hopes of thawing relations with other Middle Eastern and Muslim countries - frozen five years ago when the intifada marked a return to Israeli-Palestinian violence - are likely to be limited by the ambiguous direction of Israeli policy after disengagement.

The uncertainty was underscored Thursday when Israel's High Court of Justice rejected a July 2004 International Court of Justice ruling that the barrier through the occupied West Bank was illegal.

The Israeli court ruled that the country has the authority to build a separation wall in the West Bank, beyond Israel's internationally recognized 1967 borders, for security reasons, signaling that Israel would continue to build the barrier despite Palestinian and international objections.

In the same Israeli ruling, however, a nine-justice panel ordered the state to review the route of the fence and alter it in order to allow Palestinians to reach major West Bank cities. The ruling comes as part of an appeal by five Palestinian villages in the area.

A foreign ministry official says he hopes the international community - and some Muslim states reviewing the potential of diplomatic relations with Israel - will recognize that the ruling on the barrier is evidence that Israel is a "healthy democracy" at work.

"We hope they will see this as a strength, that this is a country with a balance of power between different branches of government, with a respect for the rule of law," says Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry. "The same people who support disengagement have to understand that disengagement couldn't have happened without a fence around Gaza. Anyone who wants to see future Israeli movement in the West Bank, and we all do, means there needs to be a fence."

The PA, however, condemns the fence for cutting through land at the heart of their hoped-for state, and because its placement over the Green Line, Israel's pre-1967 borders, might predetermine the outcome of any future negotiations. PA officials have also expressed criticism of other Muslim nations for making overtures to Israel.

But several countries have already taken steps - some tentative and others bold - toward opening ties with Israel, with a mix of motivations afoot.

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