Post by Moses on Apr 4, 2005 22:03:54 GMT -5
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Apr. 5, 2005 1:23 | Updated Apr. 5, 2005 4:40
Withdrawal talks 'outsourced' to US think tank[/size]
WASHINGTON
At an impasse over how to coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinians have turned to an American think tank for a way out of a stalemate that could collapse the peace process.
Top Israeli, Palestinian and US leaders were slated to convene this week in Washington at the Aspen Institute, a prominent think tank involved in leadership development in the developing world. [Time Warner/AEI/CNN orchestrator of war propaganda, Walter Isaacson, is there]
The purpose of the seminar ostensibly was to discuss investment prospects in the Palestinian areas after the withdrawal, which is slated to begin July 20. But the more urgent agenda, set to be addressed behind closed doors, was to come up with a plan for the withdrawal, according to sources connected with the program.
"There's a time constraint," said Markus Kostner, the West Bank and Gaza officer at the World Bank, which repeatedly has said that it's critical to begin planning early for the withdrawal. "There's not much time left to get ready." Israeli and Palestinian officials reportedly have met several times in recent weeks, but mutual distrust has trumped the desire to come up with a solution and avert chaos.
As of last week, a critical first step – an Israeli hand over to the Palestinians of detailed data on settlements that are to be evacuated – was yet to take place, Kostner said.
The forum slated for Wednesday at the Aspen Institute is called "Building Peace: Engaging US Business in Making Gaza Work." The line-up includes Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who is in charge of the civil aspects of the withdrawal; Palestinian Authority Minister for Civil Affairs Muhammad Dahlan; and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
But the real work was expected to take place behind the scenes at sessions Monday and Tuesday that were to include Peres, Dahlan and other senior officials.
The Aspen Institute forum was likely to be the highest-profile encounter since the historic meeting between the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan in Sharm e-Sheikh in February. That gathering officially relaunched the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Other officials who planned to be at the forum include Giora Eiland, head of the National Security Council; Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Authority planning minister; Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Herzog, whose job it is to find new dwellings for evacuated settlers; and top Palestinian and Israeli businesspeople.
According to insiders, the president of the Aspen Institute, Walter Isaacson, has been working for weeks to come up with a formula to implement all aspects of the handover.
The fact that the Israelis and the Palestinians are "outsourcing" such a plan to a private think tank – albeit one of the most influential in Washington, with a board overflowing with former statesmen – underscores the desperation on both sides as disengagement approaches.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is handling military aspects of the withdrawal, said he had expressed concerns about many "open questions" regarding the withdrawal during meetings in Washington last week with top US officials, including Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.
A "dignified" pullout, Mofaz said in his meetings, would avert "chaos" in Israel, according to a senior Israeli official.
Israelis are especially worried that a terrorist takeover of evacuated properties – a Hamas flag, say, flying over the settlement of Neveh Dekalim after the withdrawal – would be a propaganda bombshell that would effectively gut popular Israeli support for withdrawal.
There are other considerations as well. An orderly transition, including due compensation for settler properties, would make future pullouts more likely.
Palestinians also want to avert chaos. A rush of Palestinians staking claims to prime properties would make the equitable use of the properties impossible.
The Gush Katif bloc of settlements, for instance, sits atop the best aquifer in the Gaza Strip, crucial to the region's environmental and agricultural planning.
"It is of the utmost importance that these areas are protected against unplanned development," a report in January by the Foundation for Middle East Peace said of the Gush Katif area, citing Gaza planners. A horde of armed squatters willing to defend their newly taken homes could quash that plan.
Experts say such nightmare scenarios could be averted by a careful transition, but for now, mutual suspicions between Israelis and Palestinians appear to be preventing progress.
Palestinians are unhappy with Israel's pace in handing over West Bank cities, releasing Palestinian prisoners and easing congestion at West Bank checkpoints.
As of now, they say they're willing only to guarantee a nonviolent withdrawal, meaning no shots would be fired as the Israelis pull out, Israeli and Palestinians officials say.
Edward Abington, a former top US diplomat who now consults for the Palestinians in Washington, said the Palestinians believe further cooperation now would adversely affect their hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
"They have convinced themselves that disengagement from Gaza is as far as [Prime Minister] Sharon wants to go," he said. "The whole issue of coordination is that nothing has happened." For its part, Israel still distrusts the Palestinian Authority. Though Israeli officials believe P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to reduce violence have been productive and genuine, they worry that he has not dismantled terrorist groups and has been unable to stop arms smuggling.
Officials say Israel still wants a third party to assume control of the settlements, a demand that irks the Palestinians.
The World Bank, which is participating in the conference, has rejected repeated entreaties by Israel and Isaacson to assume control of the properties during a transition phase.
"A third party would in practice find it very difficult to protect the assets, since it would be loath to employ force to do so – for fear of losing its perceived legitimacy among Palestinians, and out of concern for its own security," the bank said in its December report.
Noting that the World Bank does not have a police force, Kostner said, "We as an international development organization cannot carry this out." Kostner said the World Bank would be ready to act as a monitor and go-between in the handover, but nothing more. In its December report, the World Bank recommended a 12-step plan for handing over the Gaza Strip.
Sources say Isaacson's emerging solution is to get private businessmen to buy the assets on the ground, which would be secured by the Palestinian Authority.
Though such a solution would work for settlements confiscated from land designated as "public" before 1967, it becomes complicated for land that Palestinian families say was owned privately before then.
Apr. 5, 2005 1:23 | Updated Apr. 5, 2005 4:40
Withdrawal talks 'outsourced' to US think tank[/size]
WASHINGTON
At an impasse over how to coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, Israel and the Palestinians have turned to an American think tank for a way out of a stalemate that could collapse the peace process.
Top Israeli, Palestinian and US leaders were slated to convene this week in Washington at the Aspen Institute, a prominent think tank involved in leadership development in the developing world. [Time Warner/AEI/CNN orchestrator of war propaganda, Walter Isaacson, is there]
The purpose of the seminar ostensibly was to discuss investment prospects in the Palestinian areas after the withdrawal, which is slated to begin July 20. But the more urgent agenda, set to be addressed behind closed doors, was to come up with a plan for the withdrawal, according to sources connected with the program.
"There's a time constraint," said Markus Kostner, the West Bank and Gaza officer at the World Bank, which repeatedly has said that it's critical to begin planning early for the withdrawal. "There's not much time left to get ready." Israeli and Palestinian officials reportedly have met several times in recent weeks, but mutual distrust has trumped the desire to come up with a solution and avert chaos.
As of last week, a critical first step – an Israeli hand over to the Palestinians of detailed data on settlements that are to be evacuated – was yet to take place, Kostner said.
The forum slated for Wednesday at the Aspen Institute is called "Building Peace: Engaging US Business in Making Gaza Work." The line-up includes Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who is in charge of the civil aspects of the withdrawal; Palestinian Authority Minister for Civil Affairs Muhammad Dahlan; and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
But the real work was expected to take place behind the scenes at sessions Monday and Tuesday that were to include Peres, Dahlan and other senior officials.
The Aspen Institute forum was likely to be the highest-profile encounter since the historic meeting between the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan in Sharm e-Sheikh in February. That gathering officially relaunched the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Other officials who planned to be at the forum include Giora Eiland, head of the National Security Council; Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Authority planning minister; Housing and Construction Minister Yitzhak Herzog, whose job it is to find new dwellings for evacuated settlers; and top Palestinian and Israeli businesspeople.
According to insiders, the president of the Aspen Institute, Walter Isaacson, has been working for weeks to come up with a formula to implement all aspects of the handover.
The fact that the Israelis and the Palestinians are "outsourcing" such a plan to a private think tank – albeit one of the most influential in Washington, with a board overflowing with former statesmen – underscores the desperation on both sides as disengagement approaches.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who is handling military aspects of the withdrawal, said he had expressed concerns about many "open questions" regarding the withdrawal during meetings in Washington last week with top US officials, including Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney.
A "dignified" pullout, Mofaz said in his meetings, would avert "chaos" in Israel, according to a senior Israeli official.
Israelis are especially worried that a terrorist takeover of evacuated properties – a Hamas flag, say, flying over the settlement of Neveh Dekalim after the withdrawal – would be a propaganda bombshell that would effectively gut popular Israeli support for withdrawal.
There are other considerations as well. An orderly transition, including due compensation for settler properties, would make future pullouts more likely.
Palestinians also want to avert chaos. A rush of Palestinians staking claims to prime properties would make the equitable use of the properties impossible.
The Gush Katif bloc of settlements, for instance, sits atop the best aquifer in the Gaza Strip, crucial to the region's environmental and agricultural planning.
"It is of the utmost importance that these areas are protected against unplanned development," a report in January by the Foundation for Middle East Peace said of the Gush Katif area, citing Gaza planners. A horde of armed squatters willing to defend their newly taken homes could quash that plan.
Experts say such nightmare scenarios could be averted by a careful transition, but for now, mutual suspicions between Israelis and Palestinians appear to be preventing progress.
Palestinians are unhappy with Israel's pace in handing over West Bank cities, releasing Palestinian prisoners and easing congestion at West Bank checkpoints.
As of now, they say they're willing only to guarantee a nonviolent withdrawal, meaning no shots would be fired as the Israelis pull out, Israeli and Palestinians officials say.
Edward Abington, a former top US diplomat who now consults for the Palestinians in Washington, said the Palestinians believe further cooperation now would adversely affect their hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
"They have convinced themselves that disengagement from Gaza is as far as [Prime Minister] Sharon wants to go," he said. "The whole issue of coordination is that nothing has happened." For its part, Israel still distrusts the Palestinian Authority. Though Israeli officials believe P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to reduce violence have been productive and genuine, they worry that he has not dismantled terrorist groups and has been unable to stop arms smuggling.
Officials say Israel still wants a third party to assume control of the settlements, a demand that irks the Palestinians.
The World Bank, which is participating in the conference, has rejected repeated entreaties by Israel and Isaacson to assume control of the properties during a transition phase.
"A third party would in practice find it very difficult to protect the assets, since it would be loath to employ force to do so – for fear of losing its perceived legitimacy among Palestinians, and out of concern for its own security," the bank said in its December report.
Noting that the World Bank does not have a police force, Kostner said, "We as an international development organization cannot carry this out." Kostner said the World Bank would be ready to act as a monitor and go-between in the handover, but nothing more. In its December report, the World Bank recommended a 12-step plan for handing over the Gaza Strip.
Sources say Isaacson's emerging solution is to get private businessmen to buy the assets on the ground, which would be secured by the Palestinian Authority.
Though such a solution would work for settlements confiscated from land designated as "public" before 1967, it becomes complicated for land that Palestinian families say was owned privately before then.