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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
September 28, 2007
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When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks in a public forum she is extremely careful about what she says. And what she doesn't.
That's what makes her remarks at the 23 September press conference at United Nations Headquarters she held with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other Quartet Principals so disturbing
Here is what she first said:
"And if you look at the phase-one commitments, it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State in which the phase-one commitments have not been realized or have not been carried through. And so, absolutely, those phase-one commitments have to be met."
So far so good.
But then she said:
"... But it is absolutely the case that you're not going to be able to establish a Palestinian State if you don't have a commitment to end terror, if you don't have a commitment to end settlement activity, if you don't have a commitment to non-violence. All of those things have to be achieved. The Palestinians will have to have capacities. They will have to have security forces that can provide security against terrorism, but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people."
Fancy footwork.
First Rice says that "it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State" if the phase-one commitments haven't been carried out.
But Rice doesn't make it a red line. Instead the red line is "commitment" rather than action.
Put simply, the solid red line is that before there is a sovereign Palestinian state the PA has to issue are really well-written declaration -- a really strongly worded one. And they have to be armed to the teeth.
What about actually doing something on the ground? "Terror" has been given the same weight as "settlement activity". As far as Rice seems to be concerned, the people building a sukkah in Ramat Eshkol are just as much a problem as the terrorist trying to blow up a bomb in Tel Aviv. This gives tremendous "wiggle room" to argue that both parties are not behaving.
But again: while the Roadmap spoke of action, Rice's red line appears to be only declarative in nature.
But that's not what phase-one was all about. It requires both talk and action.
Here is the wording:
Talk: "Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere."
Action: "All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."
Talk: "Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism "
Action: "and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere."
And while Rice talks about apparently arming the Palestinians to the teeth (does "but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people" mean an ability to fight Israel?) she also ignores action:
"Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons ..."
Instead of real action we have some photo ops.
This week the PA tried to make a splash in the press by handing over some pipes to Israeli authorities -- claiming that they were Qassam rockets.
Similar hollow photo ops can be expected in the future. This while "moderate peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas continues to take a strong position against Israel right to defend itself from terror attacks.
The last thing that Israeli officials can afford to do is ignore this policy shift.
The shift away from requiring Palestinian compliance before the forming of a Palestinian state isn't a matter of nuance. It is fundamental.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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