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Disengage from the Rhetoric

Hillel Halkin (New York Sun) - * Disengagement from Gaza will take place. Yet its ultimate success depends not only on Jerusalem but also on Washington. Recent U.S. declarations, most but not all coming from the State Department, have criticized Israel for continued "settlement activity," even in those areas near the 1967 Israeli-Jordanian armistice lines with large Jewish concentrations that have been publicly acknowledged by the president to be unsurrenderable; and reiterated the traditional U.S. position that any changes in the 1967 lines have to be mutually agreed upon in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. * The assumption that a formal Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty is not achievable is the entire logic behind Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. In the absence of such a treaty, Israel must act on its own to demarcate its permanent borders. * These borders must strive to be both militarily and demographically optimal, that is, to include within them as many strategic assets and Jewish settlements as possible while freeing a maximum of Palestinians from Israeli domination. * An Israel existing within such borders, even if unacceptable to the Palestinians in principle, stands a reasonable chance of being tolerated by them if it is backed by Israeli military might, a relatively unified Israeli society, and - the support of the United States. This support is crucial. * To continue to insist on a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty is therefore to continue to insist on never-ending Israeli-Palestinian territorial conflict.
2005-07-06 00:00:00
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