Solana and PA President Mahmoud Abbas are seen talking before a press conference in Ramallah.
Photo: AP
[excerpts from Jerusalem Post]
Javier Solana has had enough. After 10 years as the European Union's foreign policy chief - and despite all the treasure and energy he has poured into Middle East peacemaking - the physicist-turned-diplomat is heading into retirement with Iran on the cusp of an atom bomb, Hamas solidifying its control over Gaza, and Mahmoud Abbas as recalcitrant as ever.
***
Like many diplomats and intellectuals, Solana appears to regard a Palestinian state - whose establishment under viable terms, it apparently needs stressing, Israelis support - as some kind of regional cure-all. Reading between the lines, it's as if he believes that the mullahs in Iran will stop grabbing for regional hegemony, stealing (rigged) elections, and pursuing nuclear weapons; that Arab autocrats will guide their polities toward tolerance and representative government; that Shi'ites and Sunnis will stop blowing each other up; that Kurds, Copts and Baha'is will gain equality.
***
SOLANA THEN offered a way forward toward creating a Palestinian state: "real mediation." By this, he appeared to mean imposing a solution, and a timetable for its implementation. If the parties didn't go along, he'd have the UN Security Council essentially codify the "real mediation" with its imprimatur.
The contrasting reactions to the Solana speech are instructive. The Palestinians' creative interpretation had Solana calling for the Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state - in line with their maximalist stance - by a certain deadline; even if Israel does not.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: "We do not object. It's time for the international community to stop treating Israel as above the laws of man."
The reaction of Israel's Foreign Ministry was that peace had to be built on negotiations, not imposed.
Plainly, the Palestinians trust that an internationally imposed "peace" would mostly ignore Israeli concerns, while catering to theirs.
Israelis do not disagree
More . . . at . . .
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443786047&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Referred by http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jew_in_Yellow/message/10180
RELATED
Solana wants UN to establish 'Palestine'
EU's Solana says world should recognize Palestinian state
No comments:
Post a Comment