Olmert unveils 'Disengagement 2' plan to 'Post'
Etgar Lefkovits, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 30, 2004
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1104291022831&p=1078027574097
[IMRA:
Step #1 Israel cannot stand still - retreats from Gaza and northern Samaria
to avoid pressure to make additional withdrawals before full Palestinian
compliance and a final agreement.
Step #2 Israel cannot stand still - retreats from most of Judea and Samaria
to avoid pressure to make additional withdrawals before full Palestinian
compliance and a final agreement.
Step #3 Israel cannot stand still - retreats from parts of Jerusalem to
avoid pressure to make additional withdrawals before full Palestinian
compliance and a final agreement.
Step #4 Israel cannot stand still - retreats from most remaining settlement
blocs to avoid pressure to make additional withdrawals before full
Palestinian compliance and a final agreement.
Step #5 The Quartet, within the framework of the Roadmap, announces that the
Palestinians are just as compliant with the Roadmap as Israel is ("Progress
into Phase II will be based upon the consensus judgment of the Quartet of
whether conditions are appropriate to proceed, taking into account
performance of both parties...Progress into Phase III, based on consensus
judgment of Quartet, and taking into account actions of both parties and
Quartet monitoring.") and that Israel must enter into final status talks.
Israel cannot stand still and begins to negotiate.
And now that the negotiations are starting - the world asks - what are you
offering?]
Israel will need to carry out a large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank
after next year's initial disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern
Samaria, whether or not a viable peace partner emerges on the Palestinian
side, Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday.
"There is no option of sitting and doing nothing. Israel's interest requires
a disengagement on a wider scale than what will happen as part of the
current disengagement plan," Olmert told The Jerusalem Post.
He declined to describe the extent of a second "disengagement plan" but said
that it offers the only clear and realistic alternative to a massive
pullback from all the territories as a result of the internationally backed
road-map peace plan and could become a useful solution to a future impasse
in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
A close ally and confidant of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Olmert has often
been the first in the government to go public with future policy.
Last year, in what was widely viewed as a trial balloon, he called for
unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, just
weeks ahead of a similar move by Sharon.
According to Sharon's current plan, which is slated to go to the cabinet for
final approval in February, Israel will withdraw from the Gaza Strip and
four isolated settlements in Samaria starting in July.
In the interview, Olmert said that it was far from certain that PLO Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who is expected to win the January 9 election for
the PA chairmanship, will become a workable peace partner.
Even if Abu Mazen does rein in the Palestinian terror groups, Olmert said,
his hard-core stance on major negotiating issues, such as final borders,
Jerusalem and refugees, may make it impossible to reach a deal with him.
"We could very well have negotiations [with Abbas] and these negotiations
will break down, but Israel will continue to progress, by carrying out
unilateral moves, including the possibility of further withdrawals that are
in the interest of the state," Olmert said.
The minister dismissed as "premature" both the early optimism over Abbas's
leadership voiced by some and the possibility that the unilateral pullout
from the Gaza Strip could become a bilateral agreement. He noted that Abbas
has not yet proved that he has the ability to struggle effectively against
terror or to build a democratic infrastructure for PA institutions.
"Without this, we don't see much chance for progress with the PA," he said.
He added that even if Abbas does fulfill his basic obligations - such as a
crackdown on terror organizations - under the road map, there remains a
"danger" that his negotiating positions will be intransigent.
"A PA crackdown on terror is a prerequisite for restarting negotiations, but
is in no way a basis for agreement on final-status peace negotiations,"
Olmert said.
He said that while a bilateral agreement with the PA would clearly be
preferable, unilateral moves would give Israel greater freedom and are "more
comfortable" as far as the country's interests are concerned.
In an interview earlier this year, Olmert had said that he envisioned ceding
at least six outlying Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to full PA control as
part of a final-status agreement, a dramatic shift in stance on the status
of the capital for the formerly hawkish Jerusalem mayor.
Public-opinion polls have indicated that about two-thirds of the public
support the disengagement plan.
Olmert said that it is "only natural and human" that the nearly 9,000
settlers slated to be uprooted from their homes as part of the current
unilateral withdrawal plan oppose it vociferously, but he predicted that,
"while painful," the pullout would be "less horrible" than people might
think.
|