New road map: Israel forfeits physical and diplomatic right to self defense

[IMRA: Under the road map, Israel immediately forfeits its right to defend
itself either physically by military operations or in the world court of
public opinion. The Government of Israel would cease to publish or
distribute information that puts the Palestinian Authority in an unfavorable
light.

Under the road map, Israel also forfeits its right to determine that the
Palestinians have failed to honor their obligations and instead relies on
the judgement of the "Quartet" with the US having veto rights. Over the
course of Oslo the United States has consistently taken the position that
for the sake of "progress" in the "peace process" it is necessary for the
United States to declare that the Palestinians have complied come-what-may.

Muzzling Israel is a critical element of the revised plan since it cripples
Israel's ability to even attempt to bring public and congressional pressure
to bear on the U.S. government not to give the Palestinians an automatic
pass.]

New `road map' draft is tougher on both Israel and PA

By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz 21 November 2002

The latest version of the internationally sponsored "road map" to an
Israeli-Palestinian agreement is tougher in the demands it makes on both
sides than the original draft given to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in
Washington last month.

According to the new draft, which reached Jerusalem this week from
unofficial sources after it was leaked to the Arab press, the Israeli
leadership will be required to publish a declaration expressing its
commitment to "the two-state vision," and the establishment of an
"independent, viable, sovereign" Palestinian state that will live in peace
and security beside Israel.

The Israeli declaration, says the new draft, will also call for "an
immediate end to violence against Palestinians anywhere," and an end to
"actions undermining trust" - expulsions, harm to civilians, and destruction
of Palestinian property. All official Israeli institutions will be required
to "cease incitement against Palestinians."

The Israeli declaration - not mentioned in the original draft of the road
map - is meant to be issued simultaneously with a Palestinian declaration
about Israel's right to exist and an immediate, unconditional end to the
armed intifada and all violent activity against Israelis, everywhere.

The new draft also intensifies the demand for a settlement freeze, including
a freeze on settlement expansion resulting from natural growth. Now Israel
is required to make a top priority out of freezing projects that disrupt
Palestinian territorial contiguity, including in the Jerusalem area. The
issue of timing of the settlement freeze remains in dispute, and has yet to
be decided. According to one approach, the freeze would only come after a
general cease-fire.

The authors of the draft accepted some of Israel's demands. They somewhat
softened the reference to the Saudi Arabian peace initiative, which had
angered Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Palestinians are now required to
begin focused efforts to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the first
stage of the program. The closed Palestinian institutions will be reopened,
but only in accordance with agreements between the sides.

The new draft rejects Israel's opposition to an international Quartet (the
U.S., UN, EU and Russia) monitoring team, which will determine whether the
conditions have ripened sufficiently to move to the next stage in the
program. But in the new draft, the Quartet's decisions must be unanimous,
and the U.S. can apply a veto and block pressure from its partners who may
want to accelerate the implementation of the plan.

The new draft was completed on November 14, after the administration
received comments from the parties and after discussions held in Jerusalem
by Quartet representatives. The administration did not give the draft to
Israel and it reached Jerusalem through other sources, after it was leaked
to the Arab press.

American officials sent a message to Israel that the latest draft is an
interim version that has not yet received the White House's blessings. They
said the final version will be brought to the Quartet foreign ministers on
December 20, after first receiving U.S. administration approval. The
original draft was personally vetted by President George W. Bush.

The Prime Minister's Office held a preliminary discussion of the latest
draft yesterday and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to
discuss it in his ministry today. Meanwhile, Housing Ministry Natan
Sharansky met yesterday in Washington with Vice President Richard Cheney and
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage, telling them it would be
difficult to conduct a serious discussion of the road map during the current
election campaign.

Furthermore, said Sharansky, while there are articles that match Bush's June
24 speech, "there are also a lot of contradictions, and things to discuss.
The timetable is very problematic." He told reporters that in any case there
was no point in discussing it as long as the "Palestinian dictator" - a
reference to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat - remains in
office. He also told Cheney and Armitage that he did not understand why the
draft reached Israel through an Arab newspaper.

The new draft sticks to the main elements of the original version. The
Palestinians are required to undertake comprehensive reforms, creating a
parliamentary democracy with a strong government and a prime minister's
position. The plan calls for the appointment of a temporary prime minister
in the initial stages. A proposal to sign a new security compact between the
sides has been dropped. There are also some changes in the division into
stages, but the timetable remains the same:

* From now to May 2003: An end to terror and violence, normalization of
Palestinian life and establishment of Palestinian institutions. Israel
withdraws from the PA areas, and the status quo from before the intifada is
restored, in accordance with progress in the security cooperation, according
to the Tenet work plan. A settlement freeze is announced, according to the
Mitchell plan.

* June 2003-December 2003: A transition phase, for the purpose of
establishing a Palestinian state inside temporary borders according to a new
constitution. The Quartet will convene an international conference, in
consultation with the parties (in the early draft it required their
consent), to be followed by the start of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue about
the establishment of the interim state. Still under discussion is to what
extent the Quartet will act to win the new Palestinian state acceptance in
the UN.

* 2004-2005: A permanent arrangement. The new draft says the purpose of the
agreement is an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In early 2004, a
second international conference is convened, to welcome the new state with
its temporary borders and to formally launch the negotiations for a final
status agreement.

The new draft also has a special section on Jerusalem, not included in the
original. It says that a negotiated settlement of Jerusalem's status will
take into account "the political and religious concerns of both sides and
will protect the religious interests of Jews, Christians and Muslims
throughout the world."