UN Security Council takes up resolution on Mideast peace NOV 29,07
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The United States on Thursday presented the UN Security Council with a draft resolution backing the US-sponsored Annapolis conference decision to relaunch the Mideast peace process. Distributed to reporters, the draft says the Council endorses the program of action for negotiations and implementation of outstanding obligations ... agreed upon by the Israeli and Palestinian leadership at Annapolis, Maryland on November 27, 2007.Under US President George W. Bush's aegis, Isaeli and Palestinian leaders met at the Maryland state capital to revive the stagnant Middle East peace process and set the goal of a peace agreement and a new Palestinian state by the end of 2008.After consultations on the draft text, US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the 15-member council had a good discussion ... there was enormous support.Everyone recognizes that we collectively and individually have to do what we can to be supportive, to sustain the momentum and to help the parties as they make the difficult decisions that they have to make to achieve peace, he added.French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the international community must support the process and the dynamics of Annapolis.
He said France deems important that the Security Council, as the US inititiative aims at, supports this dynamic triggered in Annapolis, which must bring about, before the end of 2008, a viable and democratic Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.France will take all its part in those efforts, Ripert said, stressing that on December 17 France will organize in Paris a donors' conference to bring financial and political support to the Palestinian Authority.Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said Annapolis is a positive step, and that the council, the primary organ for international peace and security, should pronounce itself on this particular event.Indonesian Ambassador Marty Natalegawa, council president for November, said the draft resolution might be adopted on Friday when the UN body holds its monthly debate on the Middle East.The US-proposed document calls on all states to lend their diplomatic and political support to Israeli-Palestinian efforts to implement their agreed program of action, including by encouraging and recognizing progress and preventing any support for acts of violence or terrorism intended to disrupt their efforts.It also calls on those states and international organizations in a position to do so to assist in the development of the Palestinian economy, including at the upcoming donors' conference in Paris.
Olmert: Palestinian state key for Israel By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 29, 3:52 PM ET
JERUSALEM - In unusually frank comments, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned in an interview published Thursday that "the state of Israel is finished" if a Palestinian state is not created, saying the alternative was a South African-style apartheid struggle. The explosive reference to apartheid came as Olmert returned from a high profile peace conference in Annapolis, Md., hoping to prepare a skeptical nation for difficult negotiations with the Palestinians.Just hours after his return, the Israeli leader received an important boost when police recommended that prosecutors drop an investigation into whether he illegally intervened in the government's sale of a bank two years ago. The threat of indictment in the case cast a cloud over Olmert for months.While Olmert has long said that the region's demography was working against Israel, the comments published in the Haaretz daily were among his strongest. Israeli officials have long rejected any comparison to the racist system once in place in South Africa.
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed at the Annapolis summit to resume peace talks with the Palestinians after a seven-year freeze. The two leaders pledged efforts to reach an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of next year.In the interview, Olmert said it was a vital Israeli interest to create a Palestinian state due to the growing Arab population in the area.The day will come when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, Olmert told Haaretz. As soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.The interview was published on the 60th anniversary of the historic U.N. decision to partition Palestine, setting up separate Jewish and Arab states. The vote led to a war, and the Palestinian state was not created.The Palestinians want to form their state in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Jews are a solid majority inside Israel, comprising roughly 80 percent of the population of 7 million. However, if the West Bank and Gaza are included, Arabs already make up nearly half the population.To ensure that Israel can maintain its character as a democracy with a solid Jewish majority, Olmert supports a withdrawal from much of the West Bank and parts of east Jerusalem, following Israel's pullout from Gaza in 2005.Israel's 1.5 million Arab citizens have the right to vote, but the estimated 3.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza do not have Israeli citizenship or rights.Olmert, a hard-liner earlier in his career, in recent years has repeatedly warned that Israel cannot remain both Jewish and democratic if it holds on to the West Bank and Gaza. But he has never used the South African analogy in public, though officials say he recently made the same argument in a closed meeting with lawmakers.Gazans complained Thursday that they are running out of fuel, blaming an Israeli decision to cut back on supplies. However, the private Israeli company that sells fuel to Gaza said the problem was that Gaza is not paying its bills — an issue that repeats itself every few months and is usually resolved quickly.In the corruption case, police said there was insufficient evidence to indict Olmert in one of those investigations — whether he illegally intervened in the government's sale of a bank two years ago. Olmert had been suspected of trying to rig the privatization of Bank Leumi in favor of two associates while he was finance minister.
The decision, coming after months of investigations, including two interrogations of Olmert, was forwarded to the attorney general, who makes the final decision on whether to indict. That decision is weeks or months away, but an indictment appears unlikely.Police are still conducting two other corruption probes against Olmert, who has denied any wrongdoing.Meanwhile, two polls published in Israeli newspapers Thursday showed the Israeli public to be highly skeptical of the fledgling peace process. The polls, conducted by the Dahaf Institute and Dialog agency, found that fewer than one in five Israelis believe the Annapolis conference was a success, and more than 80 percent of the public thinks the Israeli and Palestinian leaders will not meet their goal of reaching a deal in 2008. The polls each questioned about 500 people and had margins of error of 4.5 percentage points.
Russia seeks to host Mideast conference By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 29, 3:58 PM ET
MOSCOW - A Mideast summit in Moscow could bolster Russia's prestige and please Arab nations such as Syria, but progress would depend heavily on the actions of Israel and the Palestinians, analysts said Thursday. Moscow has offered to host a follow-up to the peace conference held this week in Annapolis, Md. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the idea received support during the summit, but stopped short of saying it was definite. He said the timing was not yet clear.An official with the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said a Moscow meeting could happen as early as February. The official spoke in Israel on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject.A conference in Moscow would fit in with President Vladimir Putin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and further burnish his image at home — particularly before March 2 presidential elections in which he is barred from seeking a third term.Putin has been doing everything possible to prove to the world — and not least to his own people — that Russia is a great power that has risen up from its knees and opposes U.S. dominance, said Georgy Mirsky, a Mideast expert and professor at Moscow's Institute of World Economy and International Relations.Putin has sought to strengthen Russia's role in Mideast peacemaking, visiting both Israel and the West Bank in 2005.
Russia, whose close ties with Syria go back to the Soviet era, has long called for a broad conference including Israel's neighboring Arab states, whose support is considered vital to any peace agreement. A meeting in Moscow would likely train a sharper focus on Syria.But it is far from clear whether such a gathering would take peace efforts further than the meetings in the United States, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated their desire to reach a peace settlement by the end of next year.I don't see any real leverage in Moscow, Mirsky said. I can't imagine what card could be played here that wasn't played in Annapolis.A heck of a lot of effort will be needed from both sides to make progress toward a settlement, he said.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov acknowledged that difficulty on his way back from the U.S. meeting. He said plans for the Moscow meeting would be made "taking into account first of all the progress of the direct work between the Palestinians and Israelis, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.Galia Golan-Gild, an Israeli expert on Soviet and Russian policy in the Middle East, said Putin has nothing to offer to further the peace process and is pushing the conference to appear influential in the region.Putin very clearly wants to be considered a superpower like the Americans, she said.
Moscow could do very little to put pressure on Syria to further peace negotiations over the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered and annexed in the 1967 war, Golan-Gild said.Still, she said, Israel would attend the conference if it was designed as a follow-up to Annapolis with U.S. approval.Olmert's office said there were several proposals for conferences and that it had not yet responded to any of them.But an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Olmert opposes follow-up summits. Olmert wants direct talks between Israel and Syria, and does not see the purpose of anything else, the official said.The Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk as saying that any attempts to solve Mideast problems outside the region, whether in Annapolis or Moscow, cannot bring real progress.
Associated Press Writer Sean Gaffney contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
