Gestures

Today Israel began to release 500 Palestinian prisoners as a good will
gesture to the PA, even though yesterday a former prisoner released in
January, 2004, Atsem Mansour of Fatah Tanzim, with another man was shot
dead by IDF soldiers while on a terrorist mission into Israel. If any one says
that Israel doesn't take chances for peace you can laugh at them. Every time
we release prisoners, who sign a statement that they will not engage in
violence, we are taking chances with our own lives. But, this gesture is
something that we are told Pres. Abbas needs to increase his credibility
with the Palestinian "street."
Today the Cabinet approved by a 14-5 vote the Disengagement bill passed by
the Knesset. Those who voted against, were mainly Likud holdouts, including
Netanyahu, Naveh, and Sharansky. Because of the seriousness of the vote PM
Sharon took no action against the opponents, and said that this was one of
the most difficult decisions of his political life.
On the same day, the Cabinet voted in favor of the amended route of the
Security Barrier around Jerusalem. No work has gone on on the barrier for
about a year while the Government fought various legal actions brought
mainly by Arabs against the route. In the end it was approved by the
Supreme Court and the Cabinet, and will now include ca. 7% of the West Bank
with ca. 10,000 Arabs. These Arabs, although inconvenienced by the barrier,
nevertheless will have special passes to transit the fence with greater
ease. They are also not Israeli citizens, they remain Palestinians, since
the barrier is a security fence and not a political barrier.
It might be that some of the barrier will not be completed since only ca.
250 km of it has been completed out of a total of ca. 600 km. But, work
will go ahead until an agreement with the PA is reached, and/or until all
attacks stop. Who knows when that can be. Meanwhile the PA issued a strong
statement against the barrier, although it was not in Abbas' name. They
also issued a statement welcoming the Gaza pullout, but looking forward to
Israeli withdrawal from ALL "occupied territories" including all the West
Bank. They must be aware that this is never going to happen. Israel must
retain some of the areas of dense Jewish settlement, including Ariel,
Ma'aleh Adumim and Kfar Etzion, all of which will be within the new route of
the Security Barrier. Further, this is not required by UN resolution 242,
that specifically does not specify that Israel must withdraw from ALL the
territories.
Also, today Jordan returned its Ambassador to Israel, and Egypt is expected
to follow suit next week. This will help to return the political situation
to some form of normality, and signals the end of the official intifada.
Meanwhile an extraordinary gathering of tens of thousands of Lebanese in the
wake of the assassination of Rafik Hariri demonstrated in Beirut against the
Syrian occupation. In previous years they would not have dared to do this,
but they have been emboldened by US and international support. Today in his
speech to NATO Pres. Bush emphasized that Syria must get out of Lebanon
according to the recent UN Security Council resolution that was cosponsored
by the US and France.
He also said that only the two combatants in the Palestine-Israel conflict
can finally settle their differences together. It was noteworthy that in
the recent Summit at Sharm-al-Sheikh there were no international
representatives present and this is precisely how Israel prefers it. Now
that gestures are being made, and prisoners are being released, and relative
quiet has descended over the borders, maybe as the disengagement from Gaza
advances this will be welcomed peacefully by the Palestinians. If not then
it can definitely be delayed as required in the Resolution passed by the
Cabinet.