Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- in spectacular fashion and with both overt and tacit support from Washington -- is fast imposing a blueprint for Israel's permanent borders that would extend beyond the 1967 frontiers the Palestinians say should frame their future state.
Two parliamentary votes this week cleared the final hurdles to Sharon's plan to vacate the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer. The government also plans to expand the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement, vowing to encompass it and others on the Israeli side of a massive separation barrier.
Many Israelis hope that Sharon's "disengagement" plan will be the beginning of the end of Israel's occupation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and possibly pave the way for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
PHOTO: AFP
But Sharon's go-it-alone approach -- imposing realities on the ground even before negotiations begin -- is likely to hurt peace prospects, torpedo hopes for a contiguous Palestinian state and undermine efforts by the new Palestinian leadership to show their people that moderation pays.
Palestinians say Washington's unwavering support for Israeli policies -- all in the name of shoring up Sharon as he tries to push through "disengagement" -- damages efforts to build confidence just as peace hopes are at their highest level in years following the death of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
"If there is any change to the 1967 borders, it must be within the framework of negotiations and it must be through an equal exchange of land ... and not by enforcing realities on the ground," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Qidwa said in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday.
Sharon will meet with US President George W. Bush in Texas next month, and several Israeli officials said they expect Sharon to seek further US support for Israel's plan to hold on to large tracts of West Bank land near Jerusalem in any future peace deal.
Citing fierce domestic opposition to disengagement, Israel has quietly asked the US to refrain from criticizing it about settlement expansion or any other issue until after the pullouts are complete this summer, Israeli officials confirmed.
That request -- and the apparent US acquiescence to it -- highlights the enormous importance both nations are placing on the withdrawal plan.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sent conflicting signals about Israel's plans to build 3,650 homes around the Maaleh Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, which if completed would cut off West Bank Palestinians from their intended capital in East Jerusalem.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rice said the expansion was "at odds" with US policy, her sharpest criticism of Israel since taking office in January. Then she appeared to step back, declining in a subsequent interview with the Washington Post to repeat the assertion.
Later, she reaffirmed Washington's support for Israel to retain major West Bank settlements under an eventual peace deal, telling Israel Radio that "the changes on the ground, the existing major Israeli population centers will have to be taken into account in any final status negotiation."
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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