By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Nov 07, 2004
In the wake of US President George W. Bush?s reelection, Washington and the European Union are set to mend fences by launching a joint initiative to jumpstart the drive for a Palestinian state in the heartland of biblical Israel.
The effort is being driven by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sees American support for the swift implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict as the best means to heal rifts created in Europe by the war in Iraq.
Blair wants Bush to make the Middle East ?peace? process the focus of his second term.
Alongside Blair?s maneuvering, EU foreign policy czar Javier Solana last week released his own ?action plan? aimed at using Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s Gaza retreat to revitalize stalled implementation of the Middle East Road Map.
Sharon has insisted the Gaza pullout is a unilateral move being taken because there is no partner on the ?Palestinian? side, and that the Road Map, while still accepted by Israel, must be temporarily frozen until the Arabs stop murdering Jews.
The EU, meanwhile, is said to be drafting plans to deploy a peacekeeping force to the Gaza Strip following Israel?s withdrawal, making future IDF anti-terror incursions next to impossible.
Israel on the chopping block
The American-led war in Iraq has created deep rifts between Washington and its British ally and the rest of Europe.
Following Bush?s reelection last week, Blair made it clear the president?s second term must be focused on healing those rifts by making common cause of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
?I have long argued that the need to revitalize the Middle East peace process is the single most pressing political challenge in our world today,? Blair told reporters at 10 Downing Street last Wednesday.
Coming dangerously close to using the so-called ?Israeli occupation? to legitimize Muslim violence, Blair urged relentlessness in both ?our war against terrorism and in resolving the conditions and causes on which the terrorists prey.?
Analysts concur that the best route towards reconciliation would be for the US to join Europe in a unified drive to ?solve? the Israeli-Arab conflict by establishing a Palestinian state on ancient biblical Jewish lands.
It is widely believed that had he won the election, John Kerry would have quickly sacrificed Israel?s national interests in order to realize his deep desire to realign with France and Germany.
Supporters of the Jewish state now fear Bush may take a page from Kerry?s playbook as he looks to maintain amicable ties with Blair.
London?s Guardian daily newspaper reported Sunday that Blair would fly to Washington this week to discuss launching a new joint Middle East peace initiative with Bush.
British officials said the two leaders would look to capitalize on Sharon?s planned withdrawal from Gaza.
Solana ?action plan?
Meanwhile, Solana has initiated his own campaign to upgrade Europe?s position as a peace broker in the Middle East.
Solana?s seven-page action plan, presented to European foreign ministers in Brussels last Tuesday, aims to utilize an Israeli pullout from Gaza to revitalize the stalled Road Map peace process.
"The road map is the only plan that the international community has, and it has to be implemented," said spokeswoman Christina Gallach.
Speaking to reporters about his plan, Solana claimed the institutions of ?Palestinian? government were working, and that Israel needed to recognize this fact ? a thinly-veiled jab at Sharon?s insistence there was no legitimate partner on the ?Palestinian? side.
Israeli government spokesman Ra?anan Gissin responded to the report by noting the only stumbling block to implementing the Road Map was the PA?s ongoing failure to curb the terrorist murder of Israel?s Jews.
Unilateral move?
Sharon?s government has maintained, contrary to Solana?s assertion, that the current Palestinian Arab regime ? labeled a corrupt, terror-tainted entity by Bush in 2002 ? was no partner for peace.
As such, Sharon has sold his ?disengagement? plan to the Israeli people as a necessary unilateral step in the absence of meaningful bilateral negotiations.
According to Sharon?s bureau chief, Dov Wiesglass, the goal of the Gaza retreat would be to temporarily freeze diplomatic efforts to birth a Palestinian state.
"The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process," Weisglass said in an interview with Ha?aretz .
US and European officials have urged Israel to coordinate the Gaza withdrawal with the PA, and a new Bush-Blair initiative is expected to build on that concept, effectively eliminating the ?unilateral? aspect of Sharon?s plan.
?Peacekeeping? force
In related news, the EU is looking to ensure Israel?s withdrawal from Gaza is permanent by deploying a peacekeeping force there, Middle East Newsline reported last week.
?EU officials said Brussels was discussing a proposal to help organize a force to stabilize the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal in September 2005,? according to the report.
?The officials said the EU would send both peace-keepers and trainers to ensure order and bolster Palestinian Authority security forces.?
Both Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz have repeatedly stated that should attacks from Gaza on Jewish towns in the Negev and coastal plain regions continue following the pullout, the IDF would quickly move back into the Strip.
The presence of foreign troops in Gaza is expected to severely complicate, if not remove entirely, the option of future Israeli anti-terror military operations.