US warns Sharon over 'talk or we'll act' threat
The United States has criticised Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon over his threat to draw his own borders and isolate the Palestinians if peace efforts remain deadlocked.
Sharon’s “unilateral steps” include drawing a temporary border in the West Bank and moving some Jewish settlements – plans that drew criticism from Palestinians and some of his own political allies.
In a long-awaited speech last night in Herzliya, where he had been expected to spell out the actions he had been mentioning for several weeks, Sharon stuck to concepts and gave few specifics. He did not say where the temporary border would be, and he did not list settlements that might be moved.
But he was clear about the choice – either Palestinians stop terrorism and dismantle violent groups or face unilateral Israeli action.
Sharon’s “disengagement plan” reflected intense domestic pressure from Israelis to take action to end three years of violent conflict. The prime minister’s popularity has plummeted in recent months as the US-backed “road map” peace plan stalled.
The road map calls for an end to all violence and leads to a Palestinian state through three stages, aiming for 2005. But talks have sputtered because of violence, political turmoil and intransigence on both sides.
America, which has criticised Sharon for considering one-sided measures, advised Israel not to try to dictate terms of a settlement.
“We would oppose any unilateral steps that block the road toward negotiations under the road map,” presidential press secretary Scott McClellan said.
“The United States believes that a settlement must be negotiated and we would oppose any effort – any Israeli effort – to impose a settlement.”
Palestinians joined Israeli hawks and doves in criticising Sharon’s proposals.
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia called for negotiations, saying: “These are ultimately dangerous words and this type of talk is simply not acceptable.”
Qureia is trying to end violence through negotiation and has said he will not confront the militants with force.
Speaking to a security conference in the Tel Aviv suburb, Sharon said Israel remained committed to the road map, but demanded Palestinians began dismantling militant groups, as called for by the international peace plan.
“We are interested in conducting direct negotiations, but do not intend to hold Israeli society hostage in the hands of the Palestinians. … We will not wait for them indefinitely,” Sharon said.
“If there is no progress towards peace in a matter of months, then Israel will initiate the unilateral security step of disengagement from the Palestinians.”
Under the “disengagement plan”, Israel would redeploy its army and relocate some settlements to create a more easily defended security boundary and reduce the number of Israelis in Palestinian areas, Sharon said.
Israel would also speed up construction of the barrier of fences, walls and trenches, he said. The barrier’s planned path dips deep into the West Bank.
“This reduction of friction will require the extremely difficult step of changing the deployment of some of the settlements,” he said, without naming them. It was a revolutionary move for a politician who was had promoted settlements for three decades in various Cabinet posts.
Sharon said the boundary would not be a permanent border: ”The disengagement plan is a security measure and not a political one.”
Under this approach, Sharon said, the Palestinians would receive “much less” territory than they would have received from direct negotiations.
Israel’s justice minister Yosef Lapid said he believed Sharon would give the Palestinians three months to begin complying with the road map before imposing his plan.
Lapid, of the centrist Shinui Party, said Sharon’s talk of moving some settlements was “a major breakthrough”. But Lapid’s praise was among the rare positive comments from inside and outside Sharon’s government.
Some hardliners threatened to leave the coalition.
“We will not be part of a government that uproots Jewish communities and will defame the entire Zionist enterprise,” said Effie Eitam, leader of the pro-settlement National Religious Party.
Moderate opposition Labour Party leader Shimon Peres said he was disappointed with the speech.
“I am very frustrated,” he told Israel TV. “In the speech we heard, there is nothing new.”
West Bank settlers called Sharon’s speech a “plan of illusions that will escalate terror”.
“The dismantling of settlements and expulsion of Jews from their homes will only increase the appetite of the murderers and will bring about the destruction of Zionism,” said settler spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef.
Islamic militants said the speech amounted to a victory for their attacks that had killed roughly 900 Israelis in the past three years.
“This is a new language by the Israelis, and this is an evidence that the uprising has created a new fact on the ground,” said Sheikh Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad leader.
