HIGH SPEED ROADWAY

Israel Softens Stance on Wanted Palestinians (JAMES BENNET, 8/17/03, NY Times)

Israel has relented on one of its core demands on the Palestinian leadership, backing away for now from its insistence that the men it regards as wanted terrorists be held under lock and key in Palestinian prisons, Israeli and Palestinian officials said today.

Instead, Israel has accepted in principle the assurances of Muhammad Dahlan, the Palestinian minister of security, that he will monitor the wanted men in the cities where they now live and prevent them from mounting attacks, the officials said.

That would represent a less aggressive strategy than the immediate "dismantlement" of terrorist infrastructure that Israel has sought. Bush administration officials had indicated that they would accept for now the milder Palestinian approach, which amounts to containment and, perhaps, assimilation into mainstream society.

Palestinian officials said the agreement cleared the way for an effective amnesty for wanted men who abandon violence.

The road continues to have far fewer turns, twists, potholes, and detours than folks expected and it still ends in just one place: statehood. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 17, 2003 10:57 PM