Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom launched a full-blown defense
of the security fence and of unilateral separation when he
met senior members of the British media in London this
week.
"We know that while the fence is reversible, human life is
irreversible," he told them, pointing out that Israel is
"well experienced in moving fences." The fence was designed
as a security measure, he said, saying that Israel had
suffered some 20,000 terrorist attacks over the past three
years.
"We should remember that this fence has only one purpose, to
stop terrorists from killing our people," he said, adding
that it would become redundant if a peace agreement was
achieved between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Shalom castigated PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei for the
continuing impasse in negotiations, noting that four months
after his appointment he had still not scheduled a meeting
with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He also accused Qurei of
failing to take a strategic decision to fight terrorism and
negotiate with Israel.
He repeated Israel's commitment to the road map and said he
told Blair and Straw that Israel would prefer not to act
unilaterally. In the absence of a negotiating partner,
however, Israel would be compelled to act alone, while
coordinating its actions "to the maximum degree possible"
with all relevant parties, said Shalom.
Four plans had been proposed for Israel's unilateral
withdrawal from Gaza and a decision on a specific plan would
be made in consultation with the United States.
Shalom also welcomed the declaration by Syrian President
Bashar Assad to resume negotiations, but said this was not
enough, insisting that Syria must cease its support for
terrorist organizations.
Shalom also met with opposition Conservative and Liberal
Democrat officials, and with pro-Israel lobby groups.
Israeli officials also met this week in the Washington with
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of
State Colin Powell and other officials to discuss Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, and what Israel
will get from the United States.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass,
and National Security Advisor Giora Eiland spent five hours
in meetings with high-level American officials. Afterwards,
the participants agreed that another round of talks at the
professional level would be necessary before a Sharon trip to
Washington.
Sharon is seeking a written commitment from the U.S. that if
Israel withdraws from Gaza and some isolated West Bank
settlements and moves the separation fence closer to the
Green Line, Washington will not require it to conduct any
negotiations with the Palestinians until there is a change in
its leadership, and will also not object to Israeli
construction in the blocs of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Ma'aleh
Adumim, which it plans to annex.
It is not clear that the Americans are willing to accept
those conditions. Washington is already insisting that Israel
coordinate any withdrawal from Palestinian areas with the
Palestinian government.
Sharon's still unscheduled trip to Washington to see
President George W. Bush is part of a broader series of
meetings that the American president is holding with Middle
East leaders. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was invited to
Bush's home in Crawford, Texas on April 12, while Jordan's
King Abdullah will visit the White House on March 21. The end
of March has been mentioned as a possible date for a Sharon
trip, but no specific date has been set yet.
The Americans have told Israel that they support a Jordanian
initiative to get an Arab League statement of support at the
league's upcoming summit for the Saudi peace plan and a call
for implementation of the road map peace plan.
Saudi Arabia has proposed at a meeting of Arab foreign
ministers in Cairo that Arab governments endorse the Geneva
Initiative. Arab diplomats said that Egypt and Syria were
likely to favor the Saudi proposal to endorse the Geneva
Initiative, while Lebanon and the Palestinians would have
reservations.
The U.S. remains angry at the PA because of the lack of
progress in the investigation of the attack on an American
diplomatic convoy in Gaza in October 2003, in which three
American security personnel were killed. The administration
continues to send harsh messages to the PA about this
matter.
American officials were angry over the Israeli raid on banks
in Ramallah last week, in which some NIS 37 million were
confiscated due to suspicions that they were meant for terror
organizations.
The Americans said that the operation undermined the position
of Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a Bush
favorite, and threatened the stability of the Palestinian
banking industry. It also embarrassed the Jordanians, since
one of the banks raided was the Cairo-Amman Bank.
The U.S. complained through several channels that Israel did
not notify it of its intention to take such an unprecedented
step, despite reports that the preparations for the raids
took months. Israel claims that it sent information through
intelligence channels about the use of the funds to finance
terror.
European Union officials were similarly critical of the
Israeli raid. They said that the EU is pressuring the PA to
conduct its financial affairs with transparency and to make
sure that all payments to PA employees, including security
personnel, go directly into their bank accounts rather than
being paid in cash. But the banks that perform that function
were the very banks that were raided.
