Israelis split as process moves
The Middle East peace process creaked back into life today following the Israeli government’s historic vote to recognise the Palestinian people’s right to a state.
In a six-hour meeting yesterday, the hard-line cabinet conditionally backed the US-backed “road map” to peace, which sees the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The 12-7 vote, with four abstentions, marked a major policy change, especially for the hawks in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party.
“This was not a simple day,” Sharon said after the vote. “This was not a happy decision.” The Palestinians accepted the plan a month ago.
Officials were now preparing for a meeting soon between Sharon and new Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas.
That meeting could pave the way for a three-way summit with US President George Bush, expected to take place next week, possibly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
The road map is a three-year, three-phase blueprint for stopping the violence and leading to a full Palestinian state living in peace next to Israel.
Sharon’s right-wing government conditionally approved the plan, but added demands that the Palestinians have rejected up to now.
Palestinians have insisted the road map must be implemented unchanged.
Israeli commentators were divided over whether the acceptance was simply a tactical move, aimed at avoiding confrontation with the United States, or whether the prime minister has had a change of heart on how to solve the conflict with the Palestinians.
For decades, Sharon was Israel’s most prominent hawk, arguing that a Palestinian state would pose a mortal danger and pushing for Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to thwart future land concessions to the Palestinians.
However, he told Cabinet ministers yesterday that Israel could not continue ruling over 3.5 million Palestinians, and there was a direct link between the bloody conflict and Israel’s economic woes.
A poll published in Israel today showed 51% of Israelis believed the road map would not lead to an agreement, but 56% believed Israel should agree to it anyway.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the Cabinet decision “was as difficult as crossing the Red Sea”.
Sharon faced down the opposition of two of his coalition partners, whose four ministers voted against, along with three ministers from his own Likud party.
Four abstained. But the two rebellious parties did not quit the government.
Approval of the plan was carefully worded to allow Israel to wriggle out from under some of the road map measures that are toughest for Sharon’s government to accept.
The Cabinet statement said “Israel agrees to accept the steps defined in the road map,” not the plan itself.
A senior Israeli official said this left Israel in position to demand that first, the Palestinians must crack down on violent groups, instead of the parallel process of Israeli and Palestinian steps called for in the peace plan.
Sharon aide Raanan Gissin said Israel would make no moves or statements of intent until the Palestinians “show progress on the ground” towards stopping terror attacks.
Israel TV political reporter Keren Neubach said: “One suicide bombing could bring down the whole process.”
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said he feared the Israeli vote was just a ploy.
“The vague acceptance of the road map, including the Israeli reservations ... proves once again that the Israeli government will place obstacles and conditions in the way of implementation,” he said.
Also, the Israeli Cabinet said the Palestinians must abandon their demand for the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, about four million people, to return to their original homes in Israel.
