President George Bush is telling Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cool it in the case of a key Jewish settlement if he truly wants peace in the Middle East.
That’s the bottom line of their meeting, as the AP notes:
CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush, concerned about the progress of negotiations toward peace in the Middle East, asked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon both publicly and privately Monday not to expand a key Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
“I told the prime minister not to undertake any activity that contravenes the road map or prejudices final status obligations,� Bush told reporters after the two met at the president’s Texas ranch.
Bush said he reiterated to Sharon the immediate demands of the internationally negotiated road map for peace between Israel and the Palestinians: that Israel remove any unauthorized outposts in the Palestinian territories and “meet its road map obligations regarding settlements in the West Bank.�
The United States has objected to an Israeli plan to add 3,650 homes to the West Bank’s largest settlement, Maaleh Adumim. The plan would cut off Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.
Israel insists it has the right to continue expanding these settlements. The United States opposes any further construction there, saying it threatens peace with the Palestinians and violates the internationally backed “road map� peace plan that calls for a settlement freeze.
The leaders conferred at the president’s ranch, the first in a series of Bush’s meetings with Mideast leaders over the next month.
Always remember that the lofty goal of Middle East peace must confront local political tensions on the Israeli, Palestinian and Arab nation sides. These political pressures are real and formidable and put leaders under definite constraints:
Sharon is under fire for a plan to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank in July and August, removing about 9,000 Israelis from their homes.
Referring to the mood in Israel, Sharon said in an interview with NBC News prior to the meeting, “The tension here, the atmosphere here looks like the eve of the civil war. All my life I was defending life of Jews. Now for the first time, steps I’m taking to protect me from Jews.�
“Yasser Arafat was first of all a murderer and he was someone with whom there was no chance whatsoever to reach peace,� Sharon said. “I believe that at the current time, maybe for the first time, there is a possibility to try and solve the problem.�
A possibility….but the leaders in this case may be battling their respective populations..
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.