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Recent
Stories
May
19, 2003
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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May
19, 2003
Bush's Road Map
Better Read
the Fine Print
by MICHAEL S. LADAH
The 'road map' for peace given recently to the
Israelis and the Palestinians is probably a genuine effort by
the so-called Quartet -- the United States, United Nations, the
European Union and Russia-- but the plan lacks an essential element
of trust. The road map lacks sufficient detail and clarity to
give the Palestinians necessary reassurance that this is not
another attempt to keep them, indefinitely, under Israeli occupation.
Over the past several decades, the Palestinian people have been
repeatedly deceived by the West, abandoned by leaders of other
Arab countries, and misguided by their own leadership. It's
no wonder that they're now skeptical about this latest effort
to bring peace to the Holy Land.
The first attempt at genuine peace between
the Arabs and the Israelis, the Camp David Accords brokered by
President Carter, turned out to be a disaster that has lingered
on for thirty years; to the surprise and disappointment of Arab
and U.S. negotiators, the Israeli negotiators imbedded various
escape clauses, relieving Israel from a real commitment to peace.
While most people could not see through the Israeli attempts
at this planned escape, one Palestinian scholar cautioned Arabs
and Palestinians about the duplicity of the language of the Camp
David accords and warned of its consequences. Since he made
his cautionary remarks about the language used in the agreement,
Dr. Fayez Sayegh has been proven right on many occasions starting
with Camp David and ending with Oslo. Other Palestinian scholars,
most prominent among them Edward Said and Hanan Ashrawi, have
also cautioned the PNA on various occasions against accepting
or signing agreements before they understood their contents,
and their implications, completely.
I couldn't help but recall the cautionary
remarks made by Dr. Sayegh, and the many other Palestinian scholars,
when I first read the 'road map' in its entirety. I read it
again and again, comparing the steps required by the Palestinians
and the Israelis during each of its three phases. Specifically,
I identify three main problems:
1) The first phase of the plan outlines
what each side is expected to do to build the confidence of the
other in restoring the peace discussions. It requires immediate
implementation. The "unconditional cessation of violence"
by the Palestinians, the freezing of "all settlement activity"
by the Israelis and the Israeli withdrawal "from Palestinian
areas occupied from Sept. 28, 2000" feature prominently
in this first phase. However, there is no mention of the ongoing
illegal construction of the infamous Sharon's Wall, Israel's
Berlin Wall, which is being built on West Bank land and which
is expected to reduce the size of the West Bank considerably
once completed. While the world was busy with Iraq, the Israeli
government decided to relocate the position of the wall in some
areas by as much as 50 kilometers further into the West Bank.
Most of the U.S. mainstream media was either too busy with the
Iraq war to report this development or it purposely decided not
to cover it. Apparently the Wall is not considered significant
enough by those who designed the road map, in spite of Israel's
clear objective of annexing even more West Bank land on which
colonial Israeli settlements exist. Those members of the PNA
who have been overly anxious to implement the road map should,
as their first order of negotiating business, demand that the
illegal construction of the wall be halted and that the completed
sections be dismantled. If Israel decides to go ahead with a
separation wall, they should be forced by the Quartet to build
it on their side of the 1967 border, not on the Palestinian side.
2) The second phase, with a time line
of June 2003 through December 2003, focuses on "the option
of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional
borders and attributes of sovereignty." Unless there is
a catch here, and most likely there is, there is no reason for
the borders of the Palestinian state to be provisional. Since
the road map is predicated on UNSCR 242, 338 and 1397, as its
provisions clearly specify, the borders should not be subject
to any negotiations. The statement quoted above contradicts
the referenced UNSCRs. The 1967 borders are clear as daylight.
Also, it is obvious that the statement
"with attributes of sovereignty" implies that such
a state will not be a sovereign state; a state that does not
have all attributes of sovereignty is not sovereign. Why, then,
should there be two states, side by side, with one sovereign
(Israel) and the other not sovereign (Palestine).
3) In the third phase, the parties "reach
final and comprehensive settlement status agreement that ends
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005, through a settlement
negotiated between the parties based on UNSCR 242, 338, and 1397,
that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and includes an
agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue,
and a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem."
Since discussions ever began between
the Palestinians and the Israelis, the Israelis have always negotiated
from a position of (military) strength and the Palestinians from
a position of weakness. How can an agreement that results from
this disparity be "just, fair and realistic" without
the full involvement and protection of the world community?
The Palestinians will once again be intimidated, threatened and
given ultimatums to accept what Israel puts on the table, even
if such proposals are not just, fair or realistic. A legitimate
frame of reference for the borders and the refugees issue already
exists under international law as specified in the UNSCRs referenced
above. They should be guaranteed by the Quartet. An agreement
between the two parties can not be negotiated. A solution must
be arbitrated and imposed on both parties on the basis of the
historical development and the referenced UNSCRs.
There may be other issues omitted from
the road map and which may be equally problematic. It is very
likely that the Palestinians are being misguided again and should
proceed with extreme caution. Unfortunately, some members of
the PNA can't hide their exhilaration for the road map, as they
did just before Oslo, and are anxious to sign on the dotted line.
Perhaps they should read and understand its contents and heed
Dr. Sayegh's warnings about fully understanding the wording of
potential agreements with Israel. Even then, Palestinian leaders
should obtain guarantees from the world community on all agreements
they sign. In doing so, they could possibly save themselves,
the Palestinian people and the Arab world countless lifetimes
of agony and disappointment.
Michael S. Ladah is an Arab American who lived and worked
in various parts of the Middle East. He is the author of "Quicksand,
Oil and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed
Palestinians." He may be reached at: mikeladah@hotmail.com
Today's
Features
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
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