'Palestinian' seething watch: Rice acknowledges Israel not going back to 'green line'
En route to London on Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made remarks that indicate that she acknowledges that Israel is not going back to the 1967 borders."Israeli and Palestinian negotiators should decide once and for all where to draw the line between Israeli and Palestinian territory, ending the argument over Jewish housing expansion on disputed ground," Rice told reporters en route to London.If we're going back to the 1967 line - God forbid - there would be nothing to determine, would there?
Rice also warned that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank do not equal a fait accompli that the houses or towns would remain in Israeli hands under a final settlement of the six-decade conflict.
...
"Ultimately the best answer is to determine what's going to be in Israel and what's going to be in Palestine," Rice said before meetings with negotiators and leaders on both sides in London and the Mideast.
"Determining final borders is the best thing we can possibly do," Rice said, suggesting she has heard Palestinian, Arab and other complaints that there is little momentum and less clarity in peace talks that are supposed to frame an independent Palestinian state before Bush leaves office.
...
Rice's remarks also reflect the conclusion - accepted privately on all sides but rarely uttered - that some disputed Israeli-occupied areas would remain a part of a redrawn Israel. The Bush administration has as much as promised Israel it could keep some sensitive land, but Rice was effectively warning the close U.S. ally not to carry the policy too far or assume it has no consequences.
"I do not, and the U.S. government does not, accept that anything done prior to agreement can ... present a fait accompli or determine the final outcome of this," Rice said.
She did not single out any particular Israeli project as improper, but repeated the U.S. diplomatic criticism of housing expansion in general.
"It's not helpful," she said.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:00 AM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
This comment has been removed by the author.
This comment has been removed by the author.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I think even Condi, who has no great love of Israel and Jews, has acknowledged that is not going to happen. Even if it did, the truth is the Palestinian (really the Arab) Israeli conflict has never been about borders. There is no set of borders the Palestinians would agree to that would end the conflict on terms acceptable to Israel. And as you have blogged elsewhere Carl - the other point - the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge - is that for any number of reasons a Palestinian state of disjointed pieces of land will not be viable. That's why this talk of an agreement this year is a mirage. It ignores the real reasons this conflict has never been settled since Israel's birth and even long before that came about.
Post a Comment
<< Home