U.S. failed to broker road map properly, local Palestinians say

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| Monday, September 22, 2003 | No comments posted

Thomas Geyer

The violence continues to escalate, and the body count on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli issue keeps growing.

Now, with Israel's announcement that it could expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from occupied territories, local Palestinians have concluded that the Bush administration has failed to properly support its "road map" to peace. The United Nations General Assembly condemned the announcement Friday.

"I'm not optimistic when it comes to the road map," said John Dabeet, a professor of economics at Muscatine Community College and president of the national AMPAL, or Americans and Palestinians for Peace.

"I don't see the road map going anywhere since President Bush and the U.S. government are not putting pressure on the Israeli side," he said.

"Bush dropped the ball when trying to get the backing of other nations in the war against Iraq. And he has dropped the ball in getting both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli issue together and cementing the road map which his government created. The U.S. needs to get involved in the whole process to make sure it gets implemented."

The road map, a U.S.-led initiative that was drafted with help from the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, envisioned the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state by 2005.

It was meant to end three years of violence that broke out after exhaustive negotiations failed on the final status talks of the Oslo Accords that were signed on the White House lawn Sept. 13, 1993, ten years ago Saturday.

Palestinians say there were four sticking points to the negotiations: the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland; the end of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory; Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Gaza and West Bank territories to the pre-1967 borders; and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

Since 2003, about 800 Israelis and 2,500 Palestinians have died in the violence.

The road map demanded that a Palestinian prime minister be selected who could negotiate with Israel after the Israeli government, with U.S. backing, broke off talks with Arafat. That prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas resigned last week after only a few months on the job. Arafat selected Ahmed Qureia as the new prime minister.

Israel's threat on Thursday to expel Arafat amid increasing violence has infuriated Palestinians. The United States is putting pressure on Israel not to go through with its threat, fearing such a move would only aggravate an already bad situation.

Jamal Tayh, a professor of chemistry at Scott Community College said that Arafat is the legitimate president of Palestine. He was elected in 1996 through a democratic process.

"Without democracy for the Palestinians, there will be no peace," he said. "The Palestinians have to have elections.

"As it is, Israel and the U.S. are trying to dictate who will lead the Palestinian government," he added. "This will not work. After all, after the Oslo Accords, both sides supported Arafat."

The United States has not been an honest broker for the road map, he said.

"You need a broker who can put pressure on both sides," Tayh said. "If it is not the U.S., it will not be any other country. Only the U.S. can put pressure on Israel, because it is from the U.S. that Israel gets all its money and military equipment."

What is happening now, he added, is that Israel, the more powerful country, is dictating terms to a weaker country.

"If the terms were fair, that might mean something," he said. "But that's not the case here."

Both Dabeet and Tayh added that Arafat has not been the obstacle for peace. Rather, they believe, the roadblock is Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government's policies toward Palestinians, such as the targeted assassination of alleged militants.

"Extremists like Sharon cannot survive when there is peace," Dabeet said. "Extremists like Sharon only survive when there is war."

A U .N. General Assembly resolution to condemn Israel's decision to remove Arafat passed Friday by a vote of 133 to 4 with 15 abstentions. Arafat has hailed the vote as a sign of international support for Palestinians.

Israel, the United States, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands were the four nations that opposed the resolution.

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.