Israel Matzav

Condi's 'road map'

Rick Richman has a dynamite piece in today's New York Sun.

Hat Tip: Atlas Shrugs

Over the last year, Ms. Rice has transformed U.S. policy from (a) support for a Palestinian state conditioned on compliance with Phase I and II of the Roadmap, to (b) support for Phase III final status negotiations to establish a Palestinian state "as soon as possible," even though the Palestinians have not complied with either Phase I or II.

Under the Roadmap, final status negotiations were to occur only after a sustained and effective effort by the Palestinian Authority to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure, Phase I, and then only after the establishment of a Palestinian state with provisional borders and limited sovereignty, Phase II. With respect to Phase I, the PA has yet to dismantle a single terrorist organization, or arrest a terrorist leader, in the four years since the Palestinians accepted the Roadmap. In the same period, Israel dismantled 25 settlements, withdrew from Gaza, and released hundreds of prisoners. In 2006, the Palestinians elected their premier terrorist organization to control their legislature. In 2007, half the putative Palestinian state was taken over in a coup.

With respect to Phase II, in January Mahmoud Abbas rejected a provisional state, and Ms. Rice then suggested that Phase II might be skipped, since it could be easier "just to go to the end game."

Thus despite the PA's inability to execute Phase I and its unwillingness to consider Phase II, the Bush administration is now devoting maximum effort to negotiate a Palestinian state "as soon as possible."

The abandonment of the sequential requirements of the Roadmap has been accompanied by extraordinarily disingenuous euphemisms. The Roadmap has not been disregarded; it has been "accelerated." The "final status issues" are now "core issues," but there is no difference between the two terms. The upcoming peace conference is a "meeting" rather than a Phase III "conference."

...

Since 2000, the Palestinians rejected a state at Camp David, rejected it again in 2001 in the form of the Clinton Parameters, accepted the Roadmap in 2003 but failed to carry out Phase I, received all of Gaza in 2005 and promptly used it to send rockets into Israel and smuggle in massive new weaponry. Exactly how many opportunities do they get to miss?

The current argument is that after a Palestinian state is negotiated, its "implementation" will require dismantlement of the Palestinian terror structure. So Phase I will supposedly come after Phase III.

But it is more likely that, once a state is negotiated, the Palestinians will claim they cannot dismantle terrorist groups until they actually have a state. Once they have a state, they will "dismantle" terrorist groups by integrating them into the army. Once they integrate them into the army, the terrorists will either be elected or stage a coup. It's happened before.

The pass being given the Palestinians on Phase I and II is particularly inappropriate given the formal promise to Israel, set forth in Mr. Bush's April 14, 2004 letter, that America would prevent "any attempt by anyone to impose any other plan" than the Roadmap.

Ariel Sharon made that reassurance an integral part of his disengagement plan. He would undoubtedly be surprised, in light of what happened thereafter, to learn of the secretary of state's "personal commitment" to rush to Phase III.

When all is said and done, the only reason Condi is able to disregard the road map is that the Olmert-Barak-Livni government is unwilling to call them on enforcing its provisions.

The Bush administration is a lame duck. It's also a rather unpopular lame duck. Republican candidates are trying to stake out positions that will set them apart from the White House, while Democratic candidates continue to attack the President on every single proposal he makes. George Bush is a weak President right now. Approval ratings hover in the low thirties. Only Olmert's approval ratings are worse among western democracies. If Israel had a strong and competent government, it could not be pushed around.

But the Olmert-Barak-Livni government is being pushed around because it is incompetent and because it wants to be pushed around. It is willing to grasp onto any straw for 'peace' at any price. Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert understands that his days in office are numbered, if only because of all the corruption investigations against him, and that barring a major miracle (like a peace agreement that is actually kept long enough for him to call elections and hold them) there is not a snowball in hell's chance that he will be in office beyond November 2010. So he is trying to give away as much as possible as quickly as possible to show his wife and children that he is a true believer in their leftist propaganda. After that, he will likely try to escape to France.

Olmert is being aided in this evil scheme by seventy-two members of Israel's 120-member Knesset, who by remaining in his coalition show that they are willing to sacrifice the country for the sake of their own personal political and financial gain. Many of them understand that if elections were to be held today, they would no longer be Knesset members. So they continue to prop up the weak Olmert government in the hope of continuing to skim money and prestige out of the State, whether for themselves or for their pet projects (and in most cases both).

And the people of Israel can do nothing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:14 PM