State Department Says Palestinians Have to Fight Terror Before They Get More Land (or: Someone's About to Get Fired)
In the past, we've argued that the most significant way to gauge whether United States support for Israel was genuine (or just a repeat of implicit Oslo-like pressure) was to evaluate whether the US was willing to condition Israeli concessions on Palestinian fulfillment of Road Map commitments. Usually and unfortunately, the opposite has been true:
[Secretary Rice] considers Israel obligated "right now" to make more concessions - including "handing over cities to the Palestinians"... Israelis are not allowed to wait for the Palestinians to actually dismantle terrorism - quite the opposite, "the roadmap is assiduously not sequencing". This is not a hard-line, pro-Israeli stance - it's the old Oslo formula all over again.
So this recent statement by a State Department official is very welcome:
A senior U.S. State Department official said Friday that Israeli and Palestinian obligations undertaken in the "road map" peace plan are not of equal importance. The official, who requested to remain anonymous, said the Palestinian Authority's commitment to fight terror is more crucial than Israel's to freeze settlement construction and evacuate illegal settlement outposts. These actions form part of the road map's first stage. The U.S. position on the issue of the PA's dismantling of armed Palestinian organizations has not changed following talks this week with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the official emphasized.
Which makes sense - the central problematic in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has always been that Israel is expected to give up tangible land for intangible promises. Actually forcing the Palestinians to repay tangible concessions (the disengagement) with tangible reciprocation (disarming terrorist groups) doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
[Secretary Rice] considers Israel obligated "right now" to make more concessions - including "handing over cities to the Palestinians"... Israelis are not allowed to wait for the Palestinians to actually dismantle terrorism - quite the opposite, "the roadmap is assiduously not sequencing". This is not a hard-line, pro-Israeli stance - it's the old Oslo formula all over again.
So this recent statement by a State Department official is very welcome:
A senior U.S. State Department official said Friday that Israeli and Palestinian obligations undertaken in the "road map" peace plan are not of equal importance. The official, who requested to remain anonymous, said the Palestinian Authority's commitment to fight terror is more crucial than Israel's to freeze settlement construction and evacuate illegal settlement outposts. These actions form part of the road map's first stage. The U.S. position on the issue of the PA's dismantling of armed Palestinian organizations has not changed following talks this week with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the official emphasized.
Which makes sense - the central problematic in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has always been that Israel is expected to give up tangible land for intangible promises. Actually forcing the Palestinians to repay tangible concessions (the disengagement) with tangible reciprocation (disarming terrorist groups) doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
