Palestinian officials see president's map to peace as unrealistic  
by Sandro Contenta, Toronto Star  
 
JERUSALEM — U.S. President George W. Bush's speech was unabashedly pro-Israeli, but Palestinians fear it condemns both sides in the conflict to more bloodshed.

"Unfortunately, the immediate and practical impact of this speech is zero," Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib said last night.  

Bush's long-awaited speech on ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was delivered as the Israeli army occupied six Palestinian-ruled towns, and tanks yet again confined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to his battered West Bank compound in Ramallah.

Bush didn't say a word to restrain Israel's military campaign, triggered by back-to-back suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis last week, and implicitly gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a green light to press ahead.

Indeed, Bush went as far as implicitly calling for Arafat's removal from power. Arafat chose to ignore that aspect in an official statement issued by his office and instead called the speech "a serious effort to push the peace process forward."

Palestinian officials are pleased at Bush's support for a negotiated end to the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Still, the speech was a major victory for Sharon, who saw his policies for dealing with the Palestinian uprising fully backed by Bush.

Bush stressed that a Palestinian state won't come to pass unless three conditions are met:

Palestinians must elect a new leadership "not compromised by terror."

The Palestinian Authority, which rules enclaves in the occupied territories, must be transformed into a democracy.

Palestinian leaders must "engage in a sustained fight against terrorism."

As for Israel's part in the bargain, Bush sounded like he was reading from one of Sharon's speeches.

Only when Palestinians leaders make progress in cracking down on extremists should Israel be required to lift the siege of Palestinian towns and withdraw its troops to the positions they held before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising 21 months ago, Bush said. Israel would then have to freeze all construction in Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, he added.

A statement from Sharon's office said that "when the Palestinian Authority undergoes genuine reforms and a new leadership takes its place at its head ... it will be possible to discuss ways of moving forward by diplomatic means."

Calling for Arafat's removal is the kind of talk that won't win Bush any allies among Arab states. But Israeli politicians could hardly believe their ears.

"This was the most Israeli-friendly speech ever given by an American president," said Tommy Lapid, head of the secular Shinui party. "He didn't even try to be even-handed."

Israeli education minister, Limor Livnat, hailed the speech as "the first step in the uprooting of the Palestinian Authority and replacing it with a leadership that is not tainted with corruption and terror."

But Israeli opposition leader Yossi Sarid said Bush's statement will do nothing to stop the violence.

"It's an American vision that is more appropriate for distant and peaceful Washington and less for Jerusalem and Ramallah, which are wallowing every day in blood," said Sarid, head of the left-wing Meretz party

Palestinian officials also described Bush's roadmap to peace as unrealistic, and insisted that Arafat will remain Palestinian leader.

"President Arafat is the elected leader of the Palestinian people and this must be respected," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Khatib described Bush's call for Arafat's removal as a bid to pressure the Palestinian leader into cracking down on extremists. But with Arafat's police forces under an Israeli military curfew, the chances of that happening are non-existent, Khatib said.

Another example of Arafat's bind in cracking down on extremists occurred yesterday, when Israeli forces in helicopters assassinated four Hamas militants, and killed two other Palestinians, with missile strikes that hit a taxi cab in the Gaza Strip.

In the West Bank city of Hebron early today, Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians, including two policemen when soldiers stormed the Palestinian government headquarters there. Eight other policemen were wounded.

The Gaza Strip attack came hours after Arafat ordered the house arrest of Sheikh Ahem Yassin, Hamas' founder and spiritual leader. Several other suspected militants were also arrested by Arafat's police.

Arafat's police officers then fired on a group of Hamas supporters trying to converge on Yassin's house, wounding one Palestinian. But the missile strikes after Yassin's house arrest made Arafat look like a collaborator in the eyes of Palestinians militants and likely assures he won't be arresting any more.

Arafat, who can't control young militia leaders even from his own Fatah movement, is preoccupied with his own political survival more than anything else. The only way he'll risk his shrinking credibility among Palestinians — and a showdown with militants by cracking down — is if he gets a concession he can portray as a victory after almost two years of violence and hardship.

A Hamas statement vowed to avenge the death of their members in the missile strike — and defy the Palestinian Authority — with more suicide bomb attacks.

"We emphasize our right to continue the jihad and resistance and to intensify the martyrdom operations as a reaction to the policy of the occupation and the (Palestinian) Authority," the group said.

Khatib, a leading Palestinian analyst and pollster before Arafat recently appointed him to his cabinet, described Bush's implicit call for Arafat's ousting through elections as a "mistake."

"How can (Bush) call for new elections and suggest the results of those elections at the same time. That kind of thing shouldn't be coming form the president of a major democracy," Khatib said. "It's a mistake that will backfire because the Palestinian people, like any other people, are very sensitive to any pressure coming from outside to change their leadership."

Arafat has already made clear he will call presidential and legislative elections by early next year. What would Bush say if Arafat is re-elected Palestinian Authority president, as is highly likely? And what would Bush do if, as the polls indicate, the radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups, which the United States has named terrorist organizations, grabbed a big chunk of seats in the Palestinian legislature?

By adopting Sharon's strategy in the uprising, Bush has backed conditions for ending the violence that few Western diplomats believe can realistically be fulfilled. Like Sharon, Bush insists that the Palestinian Authority must reform its corrupt and undemocratic ways, but Israel's military siege of Palestinian towns makes it virtually impossible to hold the essential element for reform — new elections.

Sharon's further demand for a complete end to the violence leaves the agenda in the hands of extremists, who easily shatter lulls in the fighting with attacks.

He wants Arafat to crack down on extremists — even as he writes Arafat off as "irrelevant" — but has consistently allowed the Israeli army to target the Palestinian police forces expected to do the job.

Sharon then rolls tanks into Palestinian towns and puts thousands of Palestinians under a military curfew. In the process, civilians often are injured or killed.

Even Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer admits the tactic of invading Palestinian towns inevitably backfires.

"Unfortunately, while the (Israeli army) is carrying out these necessary actions, the operations themselves become a hothouse that produces more and more new suicide bombers," Ben-Eliezer said in an interview with Ha'aretz daily newspaper last weekend.

"The military actions kindle the frustration, hatred and despair and are the incubator for the terror to come," he added.

This is the vicious cycle that Bush failed to address in his speech.

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