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Peace Process

US won?t back Israeli sovereignty in Yesha


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
March 25, 2005

One of the primary justifications put forward by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when selling his “disengagement” plan to the Israeli public was that quitting the Gaza Strip would result in US support for continued sovereignty over “West Bank” settlement blocs.

But American officials have for months been hinting that Washington would never publicly support such an outcome. They say Sharon misunderstood a letter from US President George W. Bush that supposedly lent support for annexation of large Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Last week, US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer stopped hinting and got frank with his Israeli hosts.

There is no deal between Bush and Sharon regarding the future of Jewish towns such as Ma’aleh Adumim, Ariel and the Etzion Bloc, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot quoted Kurtzer as telling Foreign Ministry cadets during a closed-door meeting.

The belief that there is such an agreement is based on a letter Bush sent to Sharon in 2004, which the Israeli prime minister interpreted as the president’s support for continued Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria in return for the Gaza pullout.

In the letter, Bush seemed to suggest that current realities on the ground would preclude a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders.

“In the agreement between Bush and myself we [received] tremendous achievements that Israel never had since its establishment,” WorldNetDaily quoted Sharon as saying in his annual address to the foreign press corps last month.

“Sometimes, an American will end a conversation with the words ‘I understand’, and an Israeli will mistakenly take that as an formal Declaration of Understanding,” Kurtzer said, attributing the error to poor Israeli knowledge of American English nuances.

“But I can assure you that no such understandings were reached. I have discussed the matter with Washington, and I have received full support on this matter.”

Kurtzer predicted “the current government won’t make it to the next elections (scheduled for 2006)” after it becomes clear Israel will be receiving no diplomatic rewards for its surrender.

Hours after Yediot Ahronot published the story, Kurtzer spoke live on Israel Radio claiming the report was “full of errors and misrepresentations.”

Kurtzer denied having cast doubt on an understanding between Bush and Sharon, and stated that “it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of negotiations will be a full and complete return to the 1967 lines.”

Yedioth Aharonot political affairs correspondent Shimon Shipper, however, said the quotes were taken directly from an official Foreign Ministry transcript of the meeting.

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