[WCUSP] Fwd: Rice's Achievement & IPF Letter - IPF Focus 6.14

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

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From: Israel Policy Forum <ipfdc at ipforumdc.org>
Date: Apr 2, 2008 12:51 PM
Subject: Rice's Achievement & IPF Letter - IPF Focus 6.14
To: odilehh at gmail.com






April 2, 2008 / VOLUME 6.14Printer Friendly Version




 Rice's Achievement & IPF Letter



 By Sadie Goldman with Jason Proetorius and IPF Staff

 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have brokered the first
tangible achievement in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process
since the Annapolis peace conference four months ago.

 Bilateral negotiations on the final contours of a Palestinian state
are reported to have been gaining momentum recently (Itamar Eichner
wrote in Yediot Acharonot on Sunday that chief negotiators Tzippi
Livni and Ahmed Qurie have met over 50 times since November). However,
those talks are so shrouded in secrecy that they have provided neither
a tangible sense of hope nor a significant change in the status quo.

 But tangible results are what Rice demanded during her most recent
trip to the region. On Sunday, she unveiled an agreement between
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad on the concrete steps they will now undertake to
implement the Roadmap obligations that they reaffirmed in November.

 Both sides have specific obligations to fulfill, including the
Israeli removal of West Bank roadblocks and Palestinian progress on
securing law and order and stopping terror. But the heart of the
Barak-Fayyad plan is its holistic vision that security for Israelis
and free movement and economic prosperity for Palestinians are not
mutally exclusive. This approach, Rice explained to the press on
Sunday, integrates security, movement, and economic issues: "and then
comes up with concrete steps that can move all three together in an
integrated fashion."

 For progress to be made, each side is reliant, at least in part, on
the other's accomplishments in order to fulfill its own. Without
cooperative efforts, furthermore, it is unlikely that much will be
achieved.

 Israel's Commitments

 The major Israeli commitment in the Barak-Fayyad agreement is the
removal of a permanent checkpoint near Jericho and some 50 of the
roadblocks that have stopped traffic between the West Bank cities of
Jenin, Tulkarem, Kalkiliya, and Ramallah.

 Along with other economic projects, like the building of new homes
around Ramallah as well as new police stations throughout the West
Bank, and allowing more Palestinians to work in Israel. These measures
are meant to enable Palestinians to drive to work and earn a living,
and to reinvigorate the West Bank economy as a whole.

 According to Israeli economist Ephraim Kleiman, "Israel has an
interest in not having hungry neighbors." That interest "is much more
important than any moral obligation," he said in an Associated Press
article by Laurie Copans last week. To illustrate his point, Copans
gave the example of the Israeli-Palestinian textile industry, "Israeli
clothing shops need cheap labor and West Bank Palestinians need work.
But Israeli and Palestinian businesses are working together less these
days because of distrust and ongoing violence." Palestinian-Israeli
cooperation has been further hampered by travel restrictions that have
stopped Palestinian workers from getting to work and Palestinian goods
from getting to Israel.

 The easing of travel restrictions that began on Monday could make a
significant change in Palestinian lives. But if they also result in an
increase in terror attacks (in Israel or in the West Bank where a
Palestinian nearly stabbed two Israelis on Monday), checkpoints would
pop right back up and the whole process would be threatened.

 Palestinian Commitments

 For this reason, greater freedom of movement is planned to go
hand-in-hand with greater Palestinian control of policing and
maintaining law and order. In addition to removing roadblocks around
Jenin, for example, the Fayyad-Barak plan heralded the deployment to
Jenin of 600 Palestinian Authority policemen who are currently being
trained under U.S. supervision. These officers, in addition to the
Palestinian police previously deployed in Tulkarem and Nablus, are
charged with enforcing law and order and fighting armed gangs.

 As there is greater order, the plan details, there will be greater
freedom of movement and, therefore, more economic prosperity. In
Rice's words, the Jenin plan "gets at one element of the Roadmap,
which is increasing Palestinian security, competence, and authority,
and it begins to get at the questions of improvement of movement and
access and economic life for people."

 The Palestinian Roadmap requirements, which entail streamlining the
Palestinian security forces, the demilitarization of armed groups, and
effective intelligence and police work to stop terror attacks, will
not happen without Israeli-Palestinian coordination. The pending
Israeli transfer of over 100 military vehicles, including 25 Russian
made armored personnel carriers to the Palestinian security forces, is
one such move.

 For genuine and lasting security, however, more direct coordination
is also necessary. According to a report on Saturday by the
Palestinian news agency Maan, Jenin will be policed, at least in the
short term, according to the "Nablus model," (which has been popularly
referred to as PA police in the day and the IDF at night). In this
arrangement, Maan cites, "the Palestinian police will be tasked to
enforce law and order while the Israeli army will continue to have the
right to arrest Palestinians…wanted for activities that are hostile to
Israel."

 The Trump Card

 The plan for securing Jenin while easing restrictions around it
exemplifies Rice's inclusive vision that "Israel and the Palestinians
together will be able to do some things that are meaningful both for
security and for economic viability." Glaringly absent from her
remarks on shared responsibility in the West Bank, however, is the one
party that could torpedo the whole process—Hamas—and the half of the
Palestinian population that lives in Gaza.

 The Barak-Fayyad initiative is concentrated mostly on improving
conditions in the West Bank. It is compatible with the Bush
Administration's policy of isolating Hamas-run Gaza while engaging the
Abbas-Fayyad government in the West Bank. According to an April 1
Bitterlemons article by the Palestinian political analyst Ghassan
Khatib, "the strategy seeks to make the 'West Bank model' more
attractive to Palestinians than the Gaza model. . . by imposing
political and economic sanctions on Hamas in Gaza and at the same time
providing increased economic aid to the Palestinian Authority in the
West Bank."

 Nine months after Hamas' takeover of Gaza, however, Gazan desperation
has not weakened Hamas but rather entrenched it, little progress has
been made in the West Bank, and there is a consensus among Middle East
experts that the 'West Bank model' has backfired. The argument is no
longer about whether to deal with Hamas, but how to deal with Hamas:
through military confrontation or through dialogue.

 This question has a lot to do with whether rockets continue to fall
on Israel from Gaza or whether some sort of Hamas-Israel ceasefire
takes hold. In Israel, there have been growing calls for talking to
Hamas, if only to secure the release of POW Gilad Shalit and to stop
the attacks. Even the State Department raised this issue in its blog
entitled, "Should the U.S. Engage Hamas in the Peace Process between
the Israelis and Palestinians?" (For Israel Policy Forum's position on
Hamas see the letter below).

 Focusing on the Achievable

 During her trip to the region, Rice avoided the "Hamas issue" and
instead focused on the practical steps needed to provide Israelis with
security, improve the lives of Palestinians, and strengthen the
Abbas-Fayyad government, which supports the peace process.

 Those steps, she declared, necessitate that Israelis and Palestinians
work in parallel and in coordination. It also means, she said in a
press roundtable on Sunday, that the United States, must "be much more
systematic about what is being promised and what is being done." While
she admitted that "we actually haven't been monitoring and verifying
for the last two and a half years," she stressed that the Bush
Administration would be an active monitor of the Fayyad-Barak plan.
Her presence in the region secured that plan, and only a continued
presence will assure its sucess.


 *************************************************

 Israel Policy Forum Letter to Secretary of State Rice:

 March 21, 2008

 Dear Madame Secretary:

 We are writing to urge you to continue and intensify your efforts to
end the violence along the Israel-Gaza border and to help establish
conditions that would enable Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas
to implement any agreements they may have reached in their bilateral
discussions. Clearly, until all violence ends, any Israeli-Palestinian
agreement, no matter how acceptable to the respective sides, will
languish on the shelf.

 With your determined and sustained personal involvement, a
Hamas-Israel cease-fire and a border agreement among Israelis,
Egyptians, and Palestinians could be reached. This could facilitate
the conditions for reaching a Final Agreement on Permanent Status by
the end of the year.

 This requires finding a way to bring Hamas into the process. While we
share your concerns over direct engagement with Hamas, we believe that
it is impossible to achieve an agreement on any of the key issues --
including the release of Corporal Shalit -- without engaging Hamas
through some means, simply because Hamas is the governing authority in
Gaza.

 Furthermore, no progress can be made with a divided Palestinian
polity. Abbas cannot make peace alone. Nor can Israel reach a binding
agreement with the Palestinian Authority while at war with the de
facto Palestinian government in Gaza. Israelis cannot be expected to
make the sacrifices needed to establish peace if Hamas, the most
violent actor, is not included, at least tacitly.

 Accordingly, we support your actions encouraging Arab states such as
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or whichever interlocutor you deem
appropriate, to determine Hamas's willingness to establish a
cease-fire and to help stabilize the current situation. We say this
with the recognition that -- as in the case of Israel's indirect
dealings with Hamas to free Gilad Shalit -- no progress can be made if
Hamas is totally excluded from the process.

 Should a ceasefire be established, we urge you to craft a new regime
for protecting the ceasefire, either through international monitors, a
multinational force on the Gaza borders, or at least through better
coordination among Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians. A ceasefire
must not only be created; it must be sustained.

 This is a moment of decision. An immediate end to the Israel-Hamas
violence and a rejuvenated peace process are of critical importance to
the Israeli and Palestinian people, and to American interests in the
Middle East. This is an essential step on the difficult road leading
to Israel living in peace and security alongside a stable and peaceful
Palestinian state.

 The Bush administration should act decisively to help bring an end to
the deaths and suffering on both sides and to immediately revive the
peace process. Otherwise, the initial gains of Annapolis and the
President's trip to the region in January will be lost, and the
current American policy will have failed.


 Sincerely,


 Seymour D. Reich Peter A. Joseph Nick Bunzl

 President Chair Executive Director