REMEDIAL READING

The handwriting on the wall (Ted Belman, 6/15/03, IsraPundit)

Sharon expressed recently, that 1. Occupation of Palestinians was a bad thing, 2. It was time to divide the land, 3. A Palestinian state was inevitable and 4. It would be contiguous. All this had been agreed upon last year.

Now the piece de resistance, an international force to separate the parties. Arafat has always wanted international monitors but not until recently did the world community take up the call for same with any conviction. Mark my words; it won't be long before it is a reality. The US will defeat the forces of terror in the territories and the ME generally. At the moment it is said, that of course, such a force can't be provided unless both sides agree. But America is working to put Mazen and Dahlan in a position to deal with the terrorists. How is this to happen?

For one thing the Roadmap provides for a Palestinian state to be recognized this year with provisional borders. Not, as you might think, a provisional state with provisional borders. This would open the way for Mazen to invite international forces into its territory to help crush the terrorists. Israel would not have to agree but would welcome them as long as they were restricted to the provisional borders.

Bit by bit, step by the step, the plan to which Sharon has agreed is unfolding.

Once this is all accomplished and the final issues are being "freely" negotiated, what, if anything, has been predetermined? Obviously the Palestinians won't be able to resort to violence to achieve their demands. Will Sharon be permitted to insist on a large part of the remaining territories and Jerusalem remaining with Israel? Or that there be no return or that the state be demilitarized etc. If Israel is really entitled to negotiate freely, the Palestinians have been snookered and the situation could go on for decades.

But perhaps that's too much to hope for. Time will tell.

The best thing about Ariel Sharon's open dovishness may be that even the hawks are starting to figure out that statehood serves Israeli interests. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2003 11:37 AM