MIDDLE EAST: Roadmap to uncertainty

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, May 16 2003 (IPS) - A major United Arab Emirates (UAE) English daily today commented on the – Roadmap" to peace in the Middle East initiative, casting a big doubt if the initiative would ever succeed in the light of the Israeli escalation of its atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Commenting editorially under the topic – Roadmap to uncertainty", the Dubai-based ‘Gulf News’ said in part: ôWill the much-hyped Middle East peace roadmap prove to be yet another non-starter? Going by the lukewarm reception it has gotten from the Israelis, as also from the hard-line Palestinian groups, the prospects of the proposals’ implementation do not seem particularly bright.

ôAlthough Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas’ acceptance of the plan was prompt and wholehearted, the Israeli counterpart’s feet-dragging has all but sounded the document’s death knell.

ôIt was bad enough that Ariel Sharon tried to sabotage the plan in its formative stage, it is even worse that he is working overtime to scuttle the roadmap now that it is on the table. His government has presented 15 objections to the document, and Sharon is traveling to Washington to present his case to President Bush himself. Simultaneously, he has allowed his army generals to persist with their provocative policy of targeted assassination of militant leaders, thereby undermining Abu Mazen’s standing with the public.

ôOn the one hand, Israeli officials argue that the moderate Palestinian leader is incapable of confronting the armed radicals who oppose peace with the Jewish state, on the other hand, the Israeli army is making his task all the more difficult by stirring up anger and hatred with their heavy-handed methods.

ôArguably the biggest hurdle to restarting negotiations at this moment is Sharon’s outright rejection of the roadmap’s demand for a freeze on construction and a dismantling of Jewish colonies built in the past two years. Sharon insists that ‘the question of settlements is not on the horizon’ and, predictably enough, in the West Bank there is no letup in the construction of Jewish homes on confiscated Arab-owned land.

ôIn his meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Israeli prime minister offered sops like freeing some Palestinian prisoners and removing roadblocks for Palestinians traveling for work, but offered no concessions on the vital question of settler colonies.

ôTrue to his diplomatic form, Powell has avoided naming and shaming Sharon as the real spoiler, but his boss in the White House – ideally speaking – should have no qualms about ordering the Israeli leader to ‘accept or else’. Having just removed the Jewish state’s biggest external security threat, President Bush is well placed to lean on Israel to implement the roadmap. If he hesitates, the Israeli prime minister will declare political victory and proceed to tear up the document. Such an eventuality would ill-serve the interest of Middle East peace, to say nothing of US national interest," concluded the paper.