America is making a very public and serious effort to reach a
cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. Though the
Americans have not said so explicitly, it is widely
speculated that the Americans want quiet in the Israel-
Palestinian conflict so that they can force out Saddam
Hussein in Iraq.
US President George W Bush has sent his special envoy General
Anthony Zinni to the Middle East to try to make progress
towards a cease fire and an eventual permanent political
solution. US Vice President Dick Cheney, an unusually active
and powerful Vice President, is also in Israel these days on
the last leg of a swing through most of the countries in the
Middle East. It is widely believed that Cheney's visits are
to prepare the ground for an American military effort to
change regimes in Iraq.
Israel is signaling its readiness for a cease fire by
pulling out of Palestinian areas in Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza.
Most of these IDF positions have been taken in the last weeks
in the general offensive that began March 1. It is not clear
if Israel really wanted to stay in those areas or just
entered them for the immediate purposes of destroying
munitions and capturing terrorists.
The IDF pulled out of Bethlehem and Beit Jala on Monday, some
12 hours after the arrival of US Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday night and
he was scheduled to meet with a number of ministers in the
security cabinet, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.
No meeting between Cheney and senior Palestinian
representatives has been planned. Various Palestinian
spokesmen criticized Cheney for not meeting with Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, but the Americans announced
that he would not meet with Arafat. The Bush administration
has been careful to keep Arafat at arm's length.
The decision to withdraw from positions in and around
Bethlehem came following meetings between Israeli and
Palestinian security officials Sunday night, and a meeting of
the high-level trilateral Israeli-Palestinian-US security
committee in Jerusalem Monday. Defense sources said the
meeting was conducted in a "substantive atmosphere."
Palestinians said the meeting was "positive."
Palestinian security forces are to take responsibility for
the areas vacated by the IDF, and Israel agreed to allow
Palestinian forces to move across the territories to do so.
Israeli diplomatic officials said that Israel has lowered its
expectations, and is not expecting a cease-fire to take place
everywhere simultaneously. There are certain areas, such as
Bethlehem, which Israel expects the PA will be able to
control, but there are other areas -- such as those around
Jenin and Nablus -- where it will take time for the PA to
implement a cease-fire, because Arafat's control there has
diminished.
The officials said the IDF withdrawal will then likely be
followed by meetings to move into the Mitchell Report and
resuming diplomatic negotiations. Israel's team is to be
headed by Peres.
Sharon, at a brief greeting ceremony for Cheney at his office
in Jerusalem, said, "Israel is a peace-seeking nation, and we
are making every effort to reach an immediate cease-fire and
cessation of terrorism, and to begin the implementation of
the Tenet Plan.
"I have in the past declared that in order to achieve a real,
just, and durable peace, I would be willing to make painful
compromises. But we cannot make any compromise on the
security of our citizens and their right to live without the
threat of terrorism and violence."
According to Cheney, the highest-ranking Bush administration
official yet to visit Israel, the US goal is clear: "to end
the terror and violence, to build confidence between Israelis
and Palestinians that peace is not only possible but
necessary, and to resume a political process that will end
the half century of conflict on the basis of UN resolutions
242 and 338, and the principle of land for peace."
Cheney reiterated Bush's vision of two states, Israel and
Palestine.
Saying "terrorism is terrorism is terrorism," Sharon said,
"There is no `good terrorism' or `bad terrorism.' Real or
imagined injustice or deprivation cannot serve as an excuse
for the murder of innocent civilians.
"In recent months we have been in the midst of a brutal wave
of terrorist attacks, aimed at innocent people -- civilians
at cafes and discotheques, youth, babies, and entire families
that fall prey to Palestinian terrorism. This terrorism knows
no mercy," Sharon said.
"Therefore, the terrorists, their dispatchers, and those who
sponsor them must have no immunity or refuge. This is the
only way to bring them to the realization that terror and
violence will achieve nothing."
The police and Border Police prevented a potentially deadly
terror attack in the North on Monday when they apprehended
two Palestinians armed with an automatic rifle, hand
grenades, and other explosives. The suspects were spotted by
police as they were crossing fields on an ATV (all terrain
vehicle) about two kilometers from Afula.
A senior police source in the Northern Region noted there is
an almost constant stream of warnings of pending terror
attacks and said the security forces are doing their utmost
to provide maximum security. He reiterated calls to the
public to remain on the alert and immediately report any
suspicious persons, objects, or vehicles.
Not only are the Palestinians not taking serious steps to
calm the street, they are even preparing to carry out attacks
during the visit of US envoy Anthony Zinni, Defense Minister
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee.
IDF Intelligence Research Department head Brig.-Gen. Yossi
Kuperwasser said the Palestinians are preparing excuses for
terrorist acts and to further delay implementation of the
Tenet plan.
"The Palestinians are having second thoughts about entering
Tenet and Mitchell, because they require them to take steps
to combat terrorism," Kuperwasser said. "They are especially
not interested in acting against terrorism after seeing what
they consider to be achievements from the attacks of the past
few weeks."
On the other hand, Kuperwasser said Arafat realizes that
refusing to enter Tenet would cause the Americans to blame
him for the failure of their efforts, something he wants to
avoid.
