A Long Road and a Frail Truce
Maher Othman Al-Hayat 2005/02/11
The cease-fire agreement that was declared in Sharm El-Sheikh between the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last Tuesday was frail. Israel and its military intelligence for the past week is spreading news about Hezbollah, Syria and Iran's attempts to destroy this truce agreement in an attempt to convince the international community that Israel is a state seeking peace, yet it is a state that is constantly being attacked. Israel claims that if the Palestinians and the Israelis were left alone, both peoples can live in peace and security.
However, in reality Israel is an expansionist state occupying Palestinian lands and the Golan Heights by the power of arms. Israel is ignoring UN resolutions that call upon Israel to withdraw from the Arab lands and not to undertake measures that might be considered as a breach of security. Israel has also overlooked the international agreements and international agreements such as the Geneva Conventions; especially what pertains to how the occupying power should bear its responsibilities towards the land it occupies. Israel continues to advocate its expansionist activities that is tearing the geographical connection in the West Bank and reducing the area of the viable Palestinian state, and thus if this state were established on an abridged peace of land that is not compatible to a greater extent with the lines of the truce agreement of 1949, then this state will never be established. President Abbas in his speech at the summit outlined essential issues that are still controversial between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on one hand, and between Israel on the other. Issues such as: Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, prisoners and borderline issues. The road to a final and stable peace seems to be long and jarring at best; however, this does not mean that we should not travel this road. The U.S. should exert pressures on Israel in order to implement the Roadmap after the withdrawal of its army from the West Bank and after the dismantling of its settlements in Gaza; otherwise, peace and stability will not be achieved.
The fact is, Israeli soldiers are the ones who broke this armistice agreement by killing an unarmed Palestinian civilian on Wednesday in a settlement near the Rafah camp. Hamas replied by bombing a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip; however, this did not injure anyone of the settlers or any of the Israeli soldiers guarding the settlement. Hamas is tacitly angry from Abbas's declaration of a cease-fire because Abbas did not consult or agree with Hamas on the terms, and what the Israelis should offer in return. Hamas doubted the Israeli commitment to this agreement based on the small number of prisoners that Israel announced it would release. Abbas declared to the press on Wednesday, "The Palestinian Authority has no relationship with the first set of prisoners that Israel plans to release." The main question now is: will the Authority have any relationship with any of the measures that Israel undertake, or does not undertake, based on the mutual truce, which is still unofficial?
It is certain that the Palestinians would comply with the same extent to ensure their and Israeli security; however, this will not accept an exclusive Israeli security and they will not be protectors for the occupation. The fact is that the Palestinians elected Abbas based on his program; establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the territories that Israel occupied, and based on his adherence to UN Resolution 194. Abbas has constantly emphasized the end of the militarization of the Intifada in order to achieve national goals. No doubt that Abbas will soon seek to continue the dialogue between the different Palestinian factions in order to pave the way for negotiations with Israel, as he firmly believes in unity among all the Palestinians.
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