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Peace Process

'Blocking Jewish construction won't bring peace'


By Ryan Jones
September 08, 2005

The Zionist Organization of America sharply criticized the Bush Administration after media reports indicated Israel had bowed to US pressure and decided not to expand the Judean town and Jerusalem suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim.

?The Bush Administration pressure on Israel is most surprising since President [George W.] Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a written promise that Israel should retain at least all the areas with major Jewish populations in Judea and Samaria,? the ZOA wrote in a statement released Tuesday.

The organization noted it was this promise Sharon had ?hawked...as a quid pro quo for retreating from Gaza and Northern Samaria.?

In the letter, Bush stated that ?in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.?

But ever since the letter was given to Sharon in April 2004, US officials, including Bush, have repeatedly insisted any official alteration of the 1949 borders must be agreed upon by both the Israelis and the ?Palestinians.?

That was the line State Department spokesman Sean McCormack took this week when pressed on the issue by reporters.

?Why would you object to Israel securing an area that you [purportedly] support Israel retaining?? one journalist asked.

McCormack simply replied, ?This is our position on the matter.?

ZOA director Morton Klein responded by writing, ?Stopping Israeli building within existing communities won't bring peace, it will only encourage more Palestinian Arab intransigence.?

Instead of working to block Jewish construction, Washington should focus its efforts on ?stopping Palestinian Arab incitement, disarming terror groups, arresting terrorists and closing bomb factories,? Klein continued.

?President Bush should be pressuring the Palestinian Authority who has fulfilled none of their obligations; not Israel who has fulfilled almost all of theirs.?

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