PM Joins Growing Consensus Against Unilateral WithdrawalBy Nissan Ratzlav-Katz & Hana Levi Julian(INN) JAN 09,07
In an interview with Chinese news agency Xinhua, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that unilateral withdrawal has proven to be a ailed policy. While he expressed willingness to negotiate a withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, Olmert said that it would
only be done in the framework of bilateral negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
This is in contradiction to the terms of a unilateral withdrawal plan, dubbed convergence, that Olmert was promoting as late as this past summer. In spring of 2006, Olmert set a deadline for PA leaders to come to the negotiating table to discuss permanent borders with Israel. If the PA leadership did not manage to make it to the table by the end of the year, he warned, Israel would get the job anyway - alone. At the time, the Prime Minister said he was convinced that unilateral withdrawal was the only way to ensure a Jewish majority in the Jewish State and to
provide effective security for Israeli citizens, if the PA continued to refuse to cooperate on measures to reach a final status agreement.
Olmert explained his new position to the Chinese interviewer by reference to the Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005, both of which, he said, encouraged terrorism and increased the likelihood of war.
A year ago, I believed that we would be able to do this unilaterally, he told reporters ahead of a three-day trip to China, which began Tuesday morning. However, it should be said that our experience in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip is not encouraging. We pulled out of Lebanon unilaterally, and see what happened. We pulled out of the Gaza Strip completely, to the international border, and every day they are firing Kassam rockets at Israelis. Under the existing circumstances, it would be more practical to achieve a two-state solution through negotiations rather than [unilateral] withdrawal.Under the unilateral Disengagement Plan, Israel withdrew military personnel and uprooted entire civilian Jewish communities - constituting 9,000 people - from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria areas.
With his latest statements, the prime minister is joining other political leaders in retroactive criticism of Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal policy, which Olmert supported and defended vigorously at the time.
Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni was recently quoted as saying that the Disengagement has proven to only have strengthened the extremists, as she called the Islamist terror organizations, in the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, in December Livni expressed her support for negotiations with the PA leadership over all outstanding issues even as PA-based terrorism against Israeli civilians continues. On Monday night, Defense Minister Amir Peretz unveiled his own diplomatic plan to reach accommodation with the Palestinian Authority. Calling it a new Road Map, in reference to the US- and EU-backed plan called the Road Map to Peace, Peretz's plan is based on negotiations with the PA's Fatah leadership.
Laborites Split on Peretz’s ‘New Road Map’ PlanBy Hana Levi Julian(INN) JAN 9,07
Defense Minister and Labor party Chairman Amir Peretz issued a call Monday evening for a new Road Map in which Israel’s final borders would be drawn. The proposal had mixed reviews in the party. Peretz called for final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to begin within the next six months in a three-stage plan for a new Road Map which he presented to a Labor faction meeting.Formulation of a new security and economic policy would comprise Step One of the plan. Negotiations on final status principles and the expansion of the PA, which would begin within the next six months, would constitute Stage Two. The final stage would be implemented with negotiations on the details of the final status agreement.Peretz contended that the plan, coauthored by Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, would strengthen moderates such as PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) by offering a diplomatic solution to the present situation.The original Road Map was also comprised of a three-stage plan formulated by the United States, Russian, the United Nations and the European Union (known as the Quartet). The PA never got past the first step, however, which called for an end to violence as Israelis came forth with confidence-building incentives. A PA state with provisional borders would come with the second phase of the plan. Final status was reserved for stage three.
Three of Peretz’s competitors in the primaries were quick to slam the proposal. Knesset member Danny Yatom said the proposal was unrealistic. As long as the Palestinian Authority is made up of two heads, it is impossible to reach an understanding regarding a permanent settlement. The most that can be accomplished is a ceasefire and the release of Gilad Shalit, he added, referring to the IDF corporal who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists last June. Shalit’s
whereabouts and condition are unknown.Another voice from the leadership race, Knesset member Ophir Pines-Paz also criticized Peretz’s initiative. You can’t mention the evacuation of illegal outposts in a diplomatic plan, while you as a defense minister are doing nothing to address the issue, he charged.Knesset member Ami Ayalon, considered by many to be the frontrunner in the upcoming race for the party leadership, expressed his preference for Kadima Foreign Minister Tzipy Livni’s diplomatic proposal.
“Such an approach of working in phases will fail, he said, adding that Livni’s plan did not require cessation of violence as a condition for moving on to the next step, the main difference between her plan and the original Road Plan. Livni’s proposal, though not specifically outlined, includes steps which have already begun, including the transfer of funds to the PA. Release of prisoners and convincing the Egyptians to stop smugglers from bringing arms into Gaza under the Philadephi Route are also part of the plan. As with the Quartet’s plan, other elements include setting up tentative borders to establish a PA state, followed by final status negotiations. There was no comment from former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who announced his candidacy
in the race the day before the meeting. Expressing his support for the plan, Tourism Minister and Barak supporter Isaac Herzog, said, We always said we wanted to strengthen the moderates. This plan will serve as a basis for negotiation within the Labor party.Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, also praised the initiative, saying he was glad about any policy that is founded to advance dialogue with our neighbors. Simhon is a Barak supporter.
