Yerdaddy
10-06-2004, 09:29 PM
As much as I hate discussing the Middle East on this board, (and anywhere else actually), this story has too many significant implications for our political process here in America to either ignore or to relegate to one of the current Middle East sandbox threads. With that in mind, I hope there will be an effort to keep this discussion focused on the issues as they relate to the story at hand.
According to a senior aide to PM Arial Sharon the plan to pull Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip was designed to kill Bush's "Roadmap to Peace," and that it was conducted with the full support of the Bush administration. His statements confirm what commentors have been saying from the beginning: that the "pullout" from Gaza, after recent escalation of expansion of settlements, is an excuse to hold on to approximately 80% of them by withdrawing 20%, contrary to what was contained in the "Roadmap" (or any other) peace plan. It should have been obvious to anyone by the fact that the administration has done nothing to encourage any kind of peace negotiations since coming to office, that the "Roadmap" was bullshit from the beginning. We been hornswaggled. Again.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11236-2004Oct6.html" target="_blank">WP: Sharon Aide Says Goal of Gaza Plan Is to Halt Road Map - Key Adviser: Israel Got U.S. Blessing</a>
JERUSALEM, Oct. 6 -- A senior aide to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said in an interview published Wednesday that Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip had "frozen" the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and guaranteed that Israel would never have to remove 80 percent of its settlers from the occupied West Bank with the "blessing" of the U.S. government.
The aide, Dov Weisglass -- until recently Sharon's chief of staff, personal attorney and still one of his closest advisers -- said the primary goals of the proposal to withdraw the 8,100 Jewish settlers from Gaza were to strengthen Israel's hold on its more numerous settlements in the West Bank and to freeze the political process as a way to indefinitely block the creation of a Palestinian state.
"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns," Weisglass said in an interview with the daily Haaretz newspaper. Under that formula, he estimated that "out of 240,000 settlers [in the West Bank], 190,000 will not be moved from their place."
Weisglass, who has been Sharon's point man in talks with the Bush administration, said that the U.S.-backed peace plan called the "road map" is dead. The plan calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state by the end of next year and is a cornerstone of President Bush's Middle East policy.
The disengagement plan "supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians," Weisglass said.
As a result, he said, "you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem."
Beilin said the interview revealed that the Gaza disengagement plan "is not to test the success of such an experience, and then using that to go on and continue with a broader peace process, but is a way to prevent any step toward completing a peace agreement with the Palestinians."
In the interview, Weisglass contended that the United States fully supported not only the Gaza withdrawal plan but the resulting impediment to the creation of a Palestinian state. "Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda -- and all this with authority and permission," Weisglass said, "all with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."
The full interview won't even be published until Friday.
<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=bonedaddy
According to a senior aide to PM Arial Sharon the plan to pull Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip was designed to kill Bush's "Roadmap to Peace," and that it was conducted with the full support of the Bush administration. His statements confirm what commentors have been saying from the beginning: that the "pullout" from Gaza, after recent escalation of expansion of settlements, is an excuse to hold on to approximately 80% of them by withdrawing 20%, contrary to what was contained in the "Roadmap" (or any other) peace plan. It should have been obvious to anyone by the fact that the administration has done nothing to encourage any kind of peace negotiations since coming to office, that the "Roadmap" was bullshit from the beginning. We been hornswaggled. Again.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11236-2004Oct6.html" target="_blank">WP: Sharon Aide Says Goal of Gaza Plan Is to Halt Road Map - Key Adviser: Israel Got U.S. Blessing</a>
JERUSALEM, Oct. 6 -- A senior aide to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said in an interview published Wednesday that Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip had "frozen" the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and guaranteed that Israel would never have to remove 80 percent of its settlers from the occupied West Bank with the "blessing" of the U.S. government.
The aide, Dov Weisglass -- until recently Sharon's chief of staff, personal attorney and still one of his closest advisers -- said the primary goals of the proposal to withdraw the 8,100 Jewish settlers from Gaza were to strengthen Israel's hold on its more numerous settlements in the West Bank and to freeze the political process as a way to indefinitely block the creation of a Palestinian state.
"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns," Weisglass said in an interview with the daily Haaretz newspaper. Under that formula, he estimated that "out of 240,000 settlers [in the West Bank], 190,000 will not be moved from their place."
Weisglass, who has been Sharon's point man in talks with the Bush administration, said that the U.S.-backed peace plan called the "road map" is dead. The plan calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state by the end of next year and is a cornerstone of President Bush's Middle East policy.
The disengagement plan "supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians," Weisglass said.
As a result, he said, "you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem."
Beilin said the interview revealed that the Gaza disengagement plan "is not to test the success of such an experience, and then using that to go on and continue with a broader peace process, but is a way to prevent any step toward completing a peace agreement with the Palestinians."
In the interview, Weisglass contended that the United States fully supported not only the Gaza withdrawal plan but the resulting impediment to the creation of a Palestinian state. "Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda -- and all this with authority and permission," Weisglass said, "all with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."
The full interview won't even be published until Friday.
<img src="http://scripts.cgispy.com/image.cgi?u=bonedaddy