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CounterPunch
October
28, 2002
Roadmap to Nowhere
by SAM BAHOUR and MICHAEL
DAHAN
The new US "road map" for peace in the
Middle East presented by US Assistant Secretary of State William
J. Burns is no more than a placebo for consumption by both Palestinians
and the world community in response to their pressuring Israel
for positive movement toward immediately ending the occupation
of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. It is also perhaps
an attempt to somehow justify Bush's planned road trip to/through
Iraq.
Doctors often prescribe placebos to patients
that they feel are suffering from ailments that are not necessarily
physiological, hoping that the patient will think that the medicine
contains some active ingredient that will cure their ailments.
Such medication may have been believed successful during the
Oslo Peace Accords, but the latest 25-months of bloodletting
has done additional physical damage to Palestinian rights, and
thus, any treatment must be real and immediate.
The draft details of the new "road
map" that have been made public are so bizarre that it is
a wonder that it is being presented at all. The US plan makes
no mention of dismantling the illegal settlements (it only speaks
of recently established "outposts"), and the plan will
leave in place three Palestinian West Bank cantons or Bantustans
(aside from the Gaza Strip) surrounded by Israeli troops, with
full Israeli control of the roads and highways.
In fact there is nothing new about the
"road map" (if it can even be called that). It is essentially
the revival, with several insignificant changes, of the failed
Tenet, Zinni and Mitchell Plans. The issue of Jerusalem and any
discussion of the right of return of Palestinian refugees is
left for later stages. The plan gives more attention to what
Palestinians must "reiterate" and how Palestinians
must re- elect and restructure their internal political life
than it does to the gross and blatant violations Israel has been
perpetrating on a daily basis for over 35 years now. The "road
map" is a step backward to the pre Madrid/Oslo period. It
pretends that nothing has happened in the past 10 years, let
alone the last two years.
The "road map" reduces the
just Palestinian struggle for self- determination and independence
to an item whose outcome is to be decided by a self-proclaimed
set of mediators known as the "Quartet" -- the United
Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. The
"road map" ignores the fact that the resolution of
the Palestinian issue is deeply embedded in international law
and human rights covenants that already prescribe a clear remedy
to the conflict the prompt ending of the Israeli military
occupation. Does the US believe that "might is right"
and that after Israel has now battered the Palestinians for 24
consecutive months, the Palestinians will simply accept less
than what is rightly due to them? Can the US be serious in demanding
Palestinian Legislative Council elections while Israel has imprisoned
members of that council?
The principles of a possible agreement
between Israelis and Palestinians have already been sketched
out in numerous UN resolutions (194, 242, 338, and 1397, among
others). These resolutions continue to enjoy the full support
of the world at large, including the historic official policies
of the US and UK. Such an internationally legitimate approach
should remain the basis, with possibly some mutually agreed upon
minor changes, for any initiative in the area, or rather any
initiative with a chance for success. The Israeli retreat to
the 1967 borders, the unqualified dismantling of illegal settlements
(which apply to all settlements in the Gaza Strip and all settlements
East of the 1967 Green Line in the West Bank), honest and creative
discussion of the right of return, and the relinquishing control
over East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority or the defacto
State of Palestine. These are issues that must be dealt with
at the first stage, and not in the form of a "road map"
that ignores the basic issues.
What is needed is a shot of legitimate
political adrenaline, not a warmed over "road map"
that lacks a destination and thus has little chance of success.
Placebos, Mr. Bush and Mr. Burns, would work in this case only
if the patients were imagining they have been under military
occupation for 35 years. One would have to be deaf, dumb and
blind to not recognize this "road map", for what is:
a pathetic attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the international
community.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Burns, your strategic
alley in the Middle East has become your strategic liability.
It is also terrorizing an entire civilian population. The time
has come to abruptly end the occupation and not invest more taxpayer
dollars traveling on a road to nowhere.
Sam Bahour
is a Palestinian-American businessman living in the besieged
Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached
at sbahour@palnet.com.
Dr. Michael Dahan is an Israeli-American political scientist
living in Jerusalem and can be reached at mdahan@attglobal.net.
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October 26
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