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Israel-Palestinian “final-status” talks begin in shadow of Bush benchmark: agreed adjustments
Category: News and Politics
DEBKAfile: Israel-Palestinian "final-status" talks begin in shadow of Bush benchmark: agreed adjustments to 1949 armistice lines
January 14, 2008, 5:52 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel's foreign minister TzipiTzipi LivniLivni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia held their first round of talks on "core issues' of the conflict in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, - as was promised PresidentPresident GeorgeGeorge W.W. BushBush during his visit last week.
Prime minister EhudEhud OlmertOlmert set up the sensitive negotiating track, heedless of threats from two coalition partners, IsraelIsrael BeitenuBeitenu and Shas, to walk out if they go ahead.
The core issues are intractable enough to have defeated scores of negotiators and mediators over decades: the status of Jerusalem, the future borders of a Palestinian state and Israel, the presence of Jewish communities on the West Bank, the status of 1948 Palestinian refugees, Israeli security in the face of Palestinian terror and the shared scanty water sources. On mere marginal questions, 22 meetings between Olmert and Palestinian Authority chairman MahmoudMahmoud AbbasAbbas failed to achieve a single point of accord before, during and after the US-promoted Annapolis conference in November.
Last week, the US president last week said his government would "nudge" the Israelis and Palestinians toward substantial negotiations and "tough concessions" for a Palestinian state to rise before he leaves the WhiteWhite HouseHouse at the end of the year. The status quo is unacceptable, he said. Israel "must give up occupation."
Since becoming the first US president to advocate Palestinian statehood, Bush has insisted on certain benchmarks for Israel-Palestinian negotiators. One is his reiteration of the 1949 armistice lines:
He laid out his basic concept on April 14, 2004, during a WhiteWhite HouseHouse visit by Abbas: "While territory is an issue for both parties to decide, I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous. I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue."
At the time, DEBKAfile emphasized the differences between the 1949 lines and the pre-1967 war boundaries - or the line which has come to be known as the GreenGreen LineLine, which demarking the West Bank.
They include several "demilitarized zones" inside Israel left open by a final peace accord. Biblical Jerusalem and the Western Wall, in Jordanian hands for 19 years, would be handed over to the Palestinians, as well as part of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway - unless they agreed to give them up.
Bush further demands: "A viable two-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank. And a state of scattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza. "This is the position of the United States today. It will be the position of the United States at the time of final-status negotiations."
As has been pointed out, this linkage would cut through and truncate Israel.
On the question of security, Olmert stressed: "There will be no peace until Palestinian terror is stopped everywhere. Gaza must be part of the package. Without Gaza, it will be hard to reach any understanding with the Palestinians.
For the US president, stopping the missile and mortar attacks on Sderot was less important than removing the checkpoints in the Palestinian state-to-be "so that a state can emerge."
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Posted by ELIA on 2008-01-16 12:07:34 | Rating: | Views: 65
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