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Peace Process

'Road Map still the best plan'


By Stan Goodenough
February 05, 2007

The Road Map remains the best solution for bringing an end to the “Palestinian”-Israeli conflict and will be pursued.

This was the determination of the Quartet – the international community’s appointed scalpel for dissecting the Land of Israel – during its meeting in Washington last Friday.

Convened to kick-start the stalled Gentile land-grab were United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union foreign policy czar Javier Solana, European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Complicating, but by no means discouraging, their efforts were differences of opinion on whether or not to continue the “economic boycott” of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority.

Russia proclaimed the pointlessness of doing so but the US insisted it was the only way to go to get the terror group to recognize Israel and abandon violence.

Even so, all the parties agreed that a year into their application the sanctions had failed to even budge Hamas from its jihadic path.

And in fact, the boycott appears to have done anything but hurt the Palestinian Arabs, with the flow of international aid doubling from $350 million in 2005, before sanctions were imposed, to $700 million in 2006.

According to opinion polls frequently conducted among them, most the Arabs benefiting from this aid remain committed to the ultimate destruction of Israel, agreeing it should remain their goal even after they have been given about half of the Jews’ land for a state of their own.

Unperturbed by the negative realities, the Quartet announced that a meeting has been scheduled for later this month between Rice, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas aimed at defining "more clearly the political horizon for the Palestinian people" and discussing final-status issues

It is worth noting that the Quartet chose to push ahead with the Road Map despite the fact:

  • That by its own assessment economic sanctions had failed to make a dent on Hamas, which is the “party” that enjoys the most widespread support among the Palestinian Arabs.

  • That Fatah personnel remain committed to employing terrorism to achieve statehood.

  • That Abbas has completely failed to exercise any authority over his people.

  • That the Palestinian Arabs are imploding in internal violence.

It is also worth noting that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni praised the Quartet’s conclusions.

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