Israelis, Palestinians Back Bus's Plan from Different Perspectives: Analysis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 01, 2002

Israelis, Palestinians Back Bus's Plan from Different Perspectives: Analysis

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Both Israelis and Palestinians cautiously welcomed the long-awaited Mideast peace plan spelt out Monday by U.S. President George W. Bush as a strategic choice. While each chooses to see what is to their favor in the plan, they remain far apart on some of the key issues.

Israelis regard the plan as a political victory for them. Bush's call for reform within the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is widely believed to amount to a removal of PNA leader Yasser Arafat, something Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has all along demanded.

The United States has urged an end to the Palestinian violence before an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories. To the Israelis, this again came as a support for their military retaliation in response to a recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.

Israel vowed on June 19 to re-occupy Palestinian territories as long as Palestinian terrorist attacks continue, taking a much tougher position than before.

However, the Israeli response ignored a few important points contained in Bush's speech, apparently reluctant to challenge Washington openly at present over sensitive issues not yet on the table.

Sharon has made it clear that Israel will not negotiate on the status of Jerusalem, a holy site hotly contested between Muslims and Jews, nor the return of the land gained during the 1967 Middle East war.

But Bush has proposed a negotiated settlement of the Jerusalem status, and called for Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders in accordance with the United Nations resolutions 242 and 338, to the satisfaction of the Palestinians and other Arab states.

For the first time, the United States emphasized Palestinians' right to create an independent state. The unprecedented U.S. support has been hailed as "a historic shift" in the U.S. Middle East policy by Palestinian officials, though in Bush's speech on June 24, Washington conditioned the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state on the PNA reforms.

Despite the fact that Bush's call for removing Arafat from power is considered an interference in Palestine's internal affairs, observers here believe it is a right choice for the

Palestinians to welcome the U.S. proposal, as a basis to work on to revive the peace process, which has at the moment collapsed because of the Israeli re-occupation.

For Palestinians, however angry they may be at the U.S. call for PNA reforms, Bush's peace initiative offers an opportunity to address issues of utmost importance to them after many aborted efforts to seek an independent state, analysts say, though details concerning creation of the Palestinian state and the Israeli withdrawal remain to be clarified.

Analysts believe the U.S. proposal is intended to leave many things open for negotiation after the creation of a provisional Palestinian state as a first step towards peace. Notable among the remaining problems are refugees, borders and the status of Jerusalem.

As the proposal in fact put off the settlement of the Jerusalem issue and other thorny problems, it is also wise for the Israelis to embrace the U.S. initiative as a strategic choice.

In addition, analysts believe the reluctance to bear the blame to continue the 22-month period of bloodshed, which has killed thousands of people, has also contributed to a positive response to Bush's speech from both Palestinians and Israelis. Weariness of war is another reason, they say.

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