Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 2009 Page: 4 of 20
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4 I July 23,2009
NEWS ANALYSIS
TEXAS JEWISH POST & SINCE 1947
U.S. eyes Syrian and Palestinian tracks
By Leslie Susser
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Despite the
latest clash between Israel and the
Obama administration over build-
ing — this time in eastern Jerusa-
lem — the United States is pressing
ahead with plans to reopen nego-
tiations on both the Israeli-Pales-
tinian and Israeli-Syrian tracks.
In Sunday's Cabinet session,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu strongly rejected American
criticism of plans by right-wing
Jews to build approximately 20
units on the site of the Shepherd
Hotel, once home to the Palestin-
ian grand mufti in the mainly Arab
neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah. Ne-
tanyahu argued that united Jerusa-
lem — east and west — was Israel's
capital, and Jewish building there
was not subject to negotiation.
The land in question was bought
in 1985 by American billionaire
Irving Moskowitz, who received a
building permit through regular
channels after a wait of more than
a decade. Netanyahu insisted that
the government had done nothing
to hurry things, and had no role in
approving the project.
Nevertheless, the prime min-
ister's critics say the timing could
not have been worse and accused
the government of trying to derail
attempts to get peace talks going.
Some analysts believe Netan-
yahu deliberately heightened the
quarrel over Sheik Jarrah to shift
the building controversy focus
from the West Bank settlements
to Jerusalem, where he has a better
case and wide domestic support.
They say he may also be hoping
to gain American concessions on
Jerusalem in return for an Israeli
freeze on building in the settle-
ments. The thinking is that this
would be seen by the Israeli public
as a deal with Obama rather than
simply caving in to American pres-
sure on the settlements.
For the Americans, U.S. pres-
sure on Israel over the settlements
Photo: Kobi Gideon / Flash 90 / JTA
Some say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shown arriving for the Likud Par-
ty meeting on July 20 at the Knesset, was eyeing future U.S. concessions when
he defied an Obama administration demand to halt a building project in eastern
Jerusalem.
is not an end in itself but rather a
means to regain Palestinian and
Arab confidence, so that the Unit-
ed States will be able take the lead
in promoting Middle East peace.
On the Palestinian track, the
Americans have been hearing very
different things from the two par-
ties. Where the Palestinians want
to cut straight to a final peace deal,
the Israelis suggest a more mea-
sured approach.
According to the Palestinian ill-
Quels newspaper, the Americans
favor the final-status approach and
are working on a plan whereby they
would allow Israel to build hun-
dreds of units in the West Bank, if
it allows a final border to be drawn
between Israel and a future Pales-
tinian state.
Al-Quds also says the Ameri-
cans are proposing settling 300,000
Palestinian refugees on land Israel
hands over to the Palestinian state
in a future land swap. That would
enable Palestinians to say they had
exercised their "right of return"
while also allowing the Israeli gov-
ernment to stop refugees from be-
ing settled in Israel proper.
The Netanyahu government,
however, does not believe a final
peace deal with the Palestinians is
possible as long as Hamas controls
Gaza.
Some on the right suggest re-
turning to the 2003 peace "road
map" and starting from square
one. Others on the left, like Presi-
dent Shimon Peres and Labor
Party leader and Defense Minister
Ehud Barak, suggest circumvent-
ing Hamas by going for an interim
Palestinian state in most of the
West Bank with temporary bor-
ders. This, they argue, would cre-
ate a dynamic toward full Pales-
tinian statehood and, at the same
time, allow Israel to keep all the
large settlement blocs — at least
until final borders are established
down the road.
Palestinian Authority Presi-
dent Mahmoud Abbas, however, is
strongly opposed to any temporary
borders because he believes they will
end up being final. Peres suggests
that Israel and the United States ne-
gotiate with the Arab world in an ef-
fort to have the moderates convince
the Palestinians to go along.
The equation would change
if Abbas' Fatah movement and
Hamas can agree on a national
unity government, thus paving the
way for talks on a final peace with
the Palestinian people as a whole.
It is a scenario not beyond the
bounds of possibility. Shin Bet
chief Yuval Diskin maintains that
Hamas is considering an added
emphasis on diplomacy and push-
ing for a Palestinian state within
the 1967 borders in return for a
long-term cease-fire, or hudna.
On the Syrian track, the Ameri-
cans already have put a tentative
peace blueprint on the table.
Drawn up by Frederick Hoff,
the U.S. official responsible for the
Israel-Syria file, the plan report-
edly envisages peace in interlock-
ing stages: First, the Israeli army
withdraws from part of the Golan
Heights and an international force
takes over the evacuated areas, part
of which becomes a peace park that
both Israelis and Syrians can visit
during the day. After a long period
of building trust in this way, and
gradually normalizing relations,
Israeli settlements on the Golan
would be dismantled and Israeli
forces would withdraw to the final
border based on the June 4, 1967
lines, with some amendments
made by Hoff.
But it won't be so easy. Netan-
yahu is not ready to commit to full
withdrawal from the Golan as a
precondition for talks, and with-
out such a commitment Syria's
president, Bashar Asad, is unlikely
to engage. Also, Assad may be re-
luctant to sever his ties with Iran,
making peace with him and the
heavy price it would entail less ap-
pealing.
As on the Palestinian track,
much will depend on President
Obama. After all the hard work in
setting up peacemaking on both
tracks, will the American presi-
dent have the political will to fol-
low through and lean on all parties
to go the extra mile?
NEWS BRIEFS
Bibi signs off on plan to
evacuate outposts
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel
Defense Forces is formulating a
plan to evacuate two dozen ille-
gal outposts in one day, an Israeli
newspaper reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-
tanyahu has approved the idea for
the plan to evacuate the 23 out-
posts built after March 2001, the
daily Ha'aretz reported Tuesday.
A joint exercise to prepare for
the planned evacuation took place
last week and was carried out by
the Border Police, the police and
the IDF, according to Ha'aretz.
The IDF told Ha'aretz that it
was keeping the preparations for
the evacuation as vague as possible
except to upper echelon leaders to
prevent soldiers who "identify with
the settlers" from leaking the plans
to them.
Lebanon army covering for
Hezbollah, Israel claims
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel
accused Lebanon's army of assist-
ing in the cover-up of Hezbollah
military activity in the south.
Gabriella Shalev, Israel's en-
voy to the United Nations, this
week formally complained to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
about what appears to have been
an explosion of weaponry south of
the Litani River.
The explosion, Shalev said in
a letter to Ban, was evidence of
Hezbollah's continued violation
of U.N. Security Council Resolu-
UP
TEXAS JEWISH POST $SINCE 1947
tion 1701, which ended the 2006
war between Israel and the terror-
ist group.
Moreover, Shalev said, Leba-
nese army troops — charged with
enforcing the resolution — instead
prevented U.N. peacekeepers from
reaching the site until Hezbollah
had cleared the evidence.
"This obstruction of move-
ment must be denounced in very
clear and robust terms," Shalev
said in her letter, quoted Friday by
Ha'aretz.
Jimmy Wisch
Publisher & Editor | 1947-2002
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 63, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 2009, newspaper, July 23, 2009; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188250/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .