Editorial de "Ha´a retz" del 27-10-02

The United States has presented a "road map" draft to settle the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, based on the vision U.S. President George Bush offered in his speech on June 24, to set up an independent Palestinian state that would exist beside Israel in peace and security. The American plan proposes a gradual process, which would require both sides to accept international supervision to calm the two-year conflict, end the Israeli occupation in the territories and gradually establish a democratic Palestine.

The composers of the American document gave considerable weight to the political and security reform in the Palestinian Authority, intended to qualify the PA for political independence. Israel is required to make the reform possible by restraining its military activity in the territories, relieving the humanitarian plight and renewing security cooperation. If the Palestinians go ahead with implementing the plan and are prepared to hold new elections, Israel will reward them by withdrawing from the territories it conquered during the intifada, and later by freezing the settlements and a further withdrawal, including the evacuation of settlements.

The "road map" centers on the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders, a principle Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has supported as an interim stage to a permanent settlement. The American plan proposes convening an international conference that would lead to setting up the temporary state at the end of 2003. By 2005, the "final" permanent settlement is due to be signed, but it is doubtful whether the parties will keep to these target dates. The United States has accepted Sharon's demand not to set binding timetables, and instead to condition the passage from one stage of the plan to the next on a "performance test."

The prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister have informed American envoy William Burns that Israel accepts the "road map" in principle, but raised a series of reservations and comments. The main problem on Israel's part regards the area of security. The "road map" relieves the Palestinians of the commitment to fight terror until their security forces are reinstated and the Israel Defense Forces complete the withdrawal from their territories.

Another problem is the proposal to post in the territories an international supervising mechanism of the Quartet (the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations). Sharon adamantly objects, for fear that hostile agents would tie the IDF's hands in its war against terror and ignore Palestinian violations.

The Palestinians also criticized the plan, but from the other side. The PA is demanding binding timetables, speeding up the posting of the observers, freezing the settlements and holding elections for the post of PA chairman as well, to give renewed legitimization to Yasser Arafat's rule.
The "road map" now provides the best chance of getting the conflict back to the political process, with the broad support of the international community. It is important that Israel says "yes" to the plan - even if there is place for reservations in various clauses - and not bury it in exhausting negotiations over the drafting and wording. To prevent further erosion in the Israeli position, it is better to reach an understanding with the U.S. on an agreed proposal.