United States President George Bush made his most explicit call for an end to the Israeli occupation after making his first visit to the West Bank on Thursday, where he witnessed Israel’s military checkpoints, the vast West Bank barrier and the spread of Jewish settlements.
In a statement which came after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Bush laid down what appeared to be his guidelines for a future agreement to end the Middle East conflict and create a Palestinian state.
”The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realise this vision seems clear: there should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” he said.
He insisted it would be possible to reach a peace agreement within a year. The future borders of a Palestinian state, he said, would ”require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities”.
The armistice lines mark where the boundary stood on the eve of the six-day war in 1967 before Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. His phrase ”current realities” suggests he favours Israel keeping some of the settlement blocs in the West Bank, in line with a letter he sent to the former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon three years ago.
He said the question of Palestinian refugees should be solved by compensation and the chance for them to live in a future Palestinian state, effectively ruling out their return to the land that is now Israel. He also called for an end to Israeli settlement expansion and for the Palestinians to confront terrorism. Although Israeli and Palestinians are engaged in their first peace talks for seven years, they have yet to begin negotiating the details of these core issues.
Earlier, the US president said an agreement on the outline of a future Palestinian state would offer a challenging alternative to the militants. But he also appeared to suggest that the agreement need not be built on the UN resolutions that have been the architecture of all peace negotiations since the conflict began.
”Look, the UN deal didn’t work in the past,” he said. ”And so now we’re going to have an opportunity to redefine the future by having a state negotiated between an elected leader of the Palestinian people, as well as the prime minister of Israel. This is an opportunity to move forward.”
Hanan Ashrawi, a moderate Palestinian MP, said Bush’s call for an end to the Israeli occupation was important. ”It means that it will deal with the occupation. We cannot just talk theoretically about a virtual Palestinian state. We need to be able to address the occupation.”
But she was also concerned about Bush’s apparent concession to Israel that some of the largest settlement blocs would remain even though settlements are illegal under international law. ”That is extremely serious because it condones an illegal act … the next step is the real test, whether it can be implemented and influence behaviour on the ground.”
Yossi Alpher, an Israeli analyst and former senior Mossad official, said he was sceptical that Bush would produce action to match his rhetoric. ”Is Bush going to do anything about ending the occupation? Are these statements going to have a profound effect on the peace process? I don’t think so,” he said.
He said Bush had the power to push Israel to withdraw its outposts, the furthest settlements, and to press the Palestinians to reform but had chosen not to apply that pressure. ”He is a sincere person … but he is horribly naive and his understanding of the Middle East dynamic is sadly lacking.”
Bush spent most of the day on Thursday in the occupied West Bank. In Ramallah a tight security operation meant large areas of the city were closed.
But fog meant that instead of being helicoptered in directly, Bush had to travel from Jerusalem by road in a heavily-guarded armoured limousine.
Thousands of armed Palestinian police were deployed in force across the city breaking up any attempted demonstration. Some distance from where Bush met and had lunch with Abbas several protesters were arrested. Police beat others with batons. While hundreds of US flags hung over the streets of Jerusalem, none were visible in Ramallah on Thursday.
Most in the city spoke of a shared sense of frustration, if not anger, with Bush who is widely regarded by Palestinians as an ally of Israel. The US president’s repeated forecast of a peace settlement within a year was met with scepticism.
Bush acknowledged that the checkpoints across the West Bank caused ”massive frustrations” to the Palestinians. ”You’ll be happy to hear that my motorcade of 45 cars was able to make it through without being stopped but I’m not so exactly sure that’s what happens to the average person,” he said.
Backstory
”Ending the occupation” was the most important phrase in Bush’s remarks — recognition that Israel’s presence in the West Bank cannot continue. He talked of ”painful political concessions” but failed to spell out what this would mean. His statement that ”any agreement will require adjustments” contradicts Arab insistence on a return to the 1967 borders. Palestinians may like the reference to a state with ”contiguous” territory, not a ”Swiss cheese” broken up by an Israeli enclave. But Bush has not indicated what the US will do to end that occupation, and there is no sign of what many Arabs crave: pressure on Israel. – Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008