Subscribe to our daily e-mail newsletter

E-mail:

Israel News Feed Or subscribe to our RSS feed | What is RSS?
Israel News from Jerusalem Newswire
Peace Process

Rice pressures Israel, pays ?Palestinians?


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
February 07, 2005

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s whirlwind visit to the region this week saw her warn Israel not to upset the current atmosphere of optimism, while she threw yet more American taxpayers’ dollars at Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.

Rice departed Israel Monday afternoon, after holding some 24 hours of talks with Israeli and PA officials in an effort to capitalize on what the West sees as a moment of opportunity to restart the stalled Middle East peace process.

The thrust of her message for Israel was to continue making the “hard decisions” needed to convince the Arabs to make peace. As expected, Abbas was praised for having taken minimal steps to curb terror, while his flagrant violations of signed peace agreements were ignored.

The PLO chief is scheduled to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday for a peace summit hosted by Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Rice called that summit an extremely important step.

Time for hard decisions, again

On Sunday, Rice met with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, and later with Sharon and his top aides.

She urged Israel to do everything possible to bolster Abbas’s nascent regime, while indicating Washington would not tolerate unilateral moves regarding Jerusalem or Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Rice was referring to a recent decision by the Sharon government expropriate some Arab-owned lands in eastern Jerusalem in order to build a security barrier to protect Israeli Jews from unrelenting “Palestinian” efforts to murder them.

Rice also further belied Sharon’s assertion that US President George W. Bush would fully support Israel’s annexation of certain settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria if all Jews were evacuated from the Gaza Strip.

She said that while Bush did recognize certain facts on the ground, “he made very clear that everything had to be negotiated, that the final-status arrangements would have to be up to the parties.”

In the meantime, Washington did not want to see Israel issue new housing tenders in any Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, diplomatic officials said Rice was expected to tell Sharon.

"We have been very clear that we would expect our friends in Israel to do nothing that would somehow prejudge the outcome of a final-status agreement in terms of territory, that this is something that really must be negotiated with the Palestinians,” Rice told reporters.

Rice called on Israel to “continue to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to promote peace and…. the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state.

More money for the PA

Meanwhile in Ramallah, Rice pledged an immediate payment of $40 million in US financial aid to help Abbas convince the Palestinian Arabs he is their rightful leader.

She said a total of $340 million in US taxpayers’ dollars would be transferred to the PA in the coming year.

Ignoring terror

Rice praised the PA for having “expressed its desire for a peaceful future with Israel.”

In a press conference following their Monday afternoon meeting, Abbas said the temporary halt to anti-Jewish terror he had brokered was proof of this desire.

“This is a promising moment,” Rice told the gathered journalists, ignoring Abbas’s declared refusal to comply with his Road Map obligation to actually dismantle the “Palestinian” terrorist infrastructure.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz tried to explain to Rice that terrorist elements were attempting to disrupt renewed peace efforts by mass murdering more Jews, but that the PA was doing virtually nothing to prevent this, Israel Radio reported.

Washington will be watching

Speaking from Ben Gurion Airport moments before her departure, Rice said Washington would be keeping a close eye on Israeli and PA compliance with the Road Map.

She also announced the appointment of General Willam Ward as a special “security coordinator” to help the PA reform its security forces and work to end the violence.

Rice cautioned, however, that no one could “expect to have a timetable” on when the scourge of anti-Jewish Islamic terrorism would actually come to an end.

Like the article?
Help spread the word:
Jnewswire updates
Never miss another story
  • Inbox already too full?
    Subscribe to our
    RSS feed instead!