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Peace Process

Analysis: How Bush avoided commitment


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
April 12, 2005

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday reiterated that in any final status agreement with the Palestinian Arabs, Israel would retain control over large Jewish settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

Sharon’s host, US President George W. Bush, navigated the issue more gingerly when the two spoke to reporters following their meeting in Crawford, Texas.

“As I said last April, new realities on the ground make it unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final-status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949,” Bush said.

He further noted, “While the US will not prejudice the outcome of final-status negotiations, those changes on the ground, including existing major Israeli population centers, must be taken into account in any final-status negotiations.”

Bush’s use of the phrase “armistice lines of 1949” is telling in that it lumps half of Jerusalem together with the Judean and Samarian settlements.

The eastern side of Jerusalem, which until 1967 was under Jordanian occupation, now contains several major Jewish neighborhoods.

Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis has repeatedly pointed out that Washington views Israel’s presence in eastern Jerusalem as synonymous with the so-called “occupation” of the “West Bank”.

Lerner explains that the Bush administration is laying the groundwork for a final peace agreement under which Israel would surrender 100% of Judea and Samaria in return for the Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.

Bush gave a heavily veiled indication that this is indeed the plan.

“…Any final-status agreement will be achieved only on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities,” the president said.

It is unclear if Bush believes the “Palestinians” would actually compromise and allow Israel to annex any settlements, but if he does, then the president’s knowledge of the Arab world leaves something to be desired.

The Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem may be different story, as they are in the midst of a heavily populated urban area, cover huge swaths of land and are home to hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.

It is impractical to expect that Israel could uproot these neighborhoods, and even the most hard line members of the PLO must realize this.

So in order to allow Abbas to save face (a concept of utmost importance in the Middle East), the only option would be trading the large Jewish towns of Ariel, Ma’aleh Adumim and those in the Etzion Bloc for continued Israeli sovereignty over parts of eastern Jerusalem.

Bush’s carefully crafted words and his delicate navigation of this issue would appear to be setting the stage for the introduction of just such a “solution”.

His firm insistence both in public and private Monday that Israel refrain from expanding the above settlements is also indicative that this is the case.

Meanwhile, Sharon continues to tell Israelis he has secured a “historic” commitment from the American leader to back Israel’s claim to strategically critical portions of its biblical heartland.

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