THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
Haaretz (Israel)
May 13, 2003

Sharon's Bantustans Are Far From Copenhagen's Hope

by Akiva Eldar

The former premier from the Italian left said that three or four years ago he had a long conversation with Sharon, who was in Rome for a brief visit. According to D'Alema, Sharon explained at length that the Bantustan model was the most appropriate solution to the conflict.

The defender of Israel quickly protested. "Surely that was your personal interpretation of what Sharon said."

D'Alema didn't give in. "No, sir, that is not interpretation. That is a precise quotation of your prime minister."

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Tanya Reinhart, "Bush's Roadmap: A Ticket to Failure," CounterPunch, May 15, 2003

[A Washington conference of Christian and Jewish Zionists yesterday heard attacks on the U.S. "road map" for peace in the Middle East as a breach of a 4,000-year-old covenant between God and Israel.

"The land of Israel was originally owned by God," said Gary Bauer, president of American Values and a Republican presidential contender in 2000. "Since He was the owner, only He could give it away. And He gave it to the Jewish people. . . .

"We may have disagreements about who [the Messiah] is," Mr. van de Hoeven said, "but He is not coming back to a mosque but to a third temple."

The remark alluded to prophecies of the Jews rebuilding their temple on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, replacing the Muslim Dome of the Rock.--Julia Duin, "Zionist meeting brands 'road map' as heresy," Washington Times, May 18, 2003]

[United Nations "Partition Plan" to the Palestinians: You are going to have 47% of the 100% which was originally yours.

"Oslo Agreement" to the Palestinians: You are going to have 22% of the 100% which was originally yours.

Barak's "Generous Offer" to the Palestinians: We are going to give you 80% of 22% of 100% of the land which was originally yours.

Sharon's "Peace Plan" to the Palestinians in 2000: We are going to give you 42% of 80% of 22% of 100% of the land which was originally yours, and this 42% will remain under continuous curfew.

"American Zionists" to the Palestinians: According to our version of the Bible you are entitled to 0% of 42% of 80% of 22% of 100% of the land which was originally yours.

The "Road Map" to the Palestinians that Bush envisions: If you stop your resistance to the occupation (which we call terrorism), and your refugees give up their right of return to their ancestral homes, and you agree to only elect officials acceptable to Bush and Sharon, and you agree to lock up all your resistance fighters, and you agree to drive your cars only on roads that Sharon assigns for your use, and you do not object to the 'wall' that Sharon is building, and you agree not to claim Jerusalem as your capital, and you agree that your children's school curriculum only includes courses and books approved by the Israeli government, and you agree not to give birth to more than three children per family, then Sharon might consider negotiating with you on the 42% of 80% of 22% of 100% of the land which was originally yours."--Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan]

[Ariel Sharon took immediate advantage yesterday of an offer by Washington which will let Israel accept the US road map for peace in the Middle East without intending to implement it fully.--Suzanne Goldenberg, "US concession draws Israel into road map vote," Guardian, May 24, 2003]

[This page has said, countless times, that strong American intervention offers the only chance for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.--Editorial, "The President's Mideast Vision," New York Times, May 25, 2003]

[Israel has laid down a demand for a "complete cessation of terror" before it begins implementing the US-led "road map" to a peace settlement.

The demand is among 14 amendments, leaked to the press yesterday, that the Israeli cabinet is seeking to the US plan as a condition of its reluctant approval.--Chris McGreal, "Israelis set terms for peace plan," Guardian, May 28, 2003]

[A meeting of 500 religious peace activists - the majority of them Jewish - will seek to counter powerful pro-Israel lobbies today with a "teach-in" on the Hill.--Julia Duin, " Religious peace activists seek support for Bush 'road map'," Washington Times, June 3, 2003]

[Urged on by President Bush, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas both pledged support for the latest Middle East peace plan and offered concessions that enraged many of their own people.--Roland Watson and Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, "Three leaders on the path to peace," Times (UK), June 5, 2003]

Oona King, "Israel can halt this now," Guardian, June 12, 2003

[The roadmap, in other words, is not about a plan for peace so much as a plan for pacification: it is about putting an end to Palestine as a problem.--Edward Said, "Archaeology of the roadmap ," Al-Ahram Weekly, June 12-18, 2003]

[The Palestinians demonstrated seven years of "constructive restraint and reconciliation" between 1993 and 2000, even as the Israelis-in clear violation of the Oslo Accord-continued their colonization of the West Bank, confiscating Palestinian lands, and building and expanding settlements that encircled Palestinian communities. And in the end, what did the Palestinians get for relinquishing their right to 78 percent of historical Palestine? The Israelis made the now-notorious "generous offer" of Palestinian Bantustans. That is when the Palestinians, threatened with extinction, mounted their Second Intifada.--M. Shahid Alam, "Illuminating Thomas Friedman," CounterPunch, June 18, 2003]

Dana Milbank, "Bush's Shift on Israel Was Swift," Washington Post, June 21, 2003

Meron Benvenisti, "Road map to perpetuating the status quo," Haaretz, June 23, 2003

Justin Huggler, "Israel defies road-map and vows to build settlements," Independent, June 23, 2003

Donald Macintyre, "Peace plan in turmoil as Palestinian PM resigns and Israel attacks Gaza City," Independent, September 7, 2003

Avraham Burg, "The end of Zionism," Guardian, September 15, 2003

Jeff Halper (interview), "Israel and the Empire," FromOccupiedPalestine.org, September 20, 2003

Justin Huggler, "After three years of carnage, does this secret plan provide a new road to peace in the Middle East"?, Independent, October 14, 2003

Aluf Benn, "Israel vows to go on with fence, despite UN condemnation," Haaretz, October 22, 2003

Stephen Farrell, "Israel's great divide redraws occupied lands," Times (UK), October 27, 2003

[Detainees are blindfolded and kept in blackened cells, never told where they are, brutally interrogated and allowed no visitors of any kind. Dubbed 'the Israeli Guantanamo,' it's no wonder facility 1391 officially does not exist.--Aviv Lavie, " Inside Israel's secret prison," Haaretz, November 13, 2003]

[Four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service said in an interview published Friday that the government's actions and policies during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising have gravely damaged the country and its people.

The four, who variously headed the Shin Bet security agency from 1980 to 2000 under governments that spanned the political spectrum, said that Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, that the government should recognize that no peace agreement can be reached without the involvement of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and that it must stop what one called the immoral treatment of Palestinians. . . .

The security chiefs denounced virtually every major military and political tactic of the Sharon administration, adding their voices to the dissent in Israel against the prime minister's handling of a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 2,500 Palestinians and nearly 900 Israelis and foreigners.--Molly Moore, "Ex-Security Chiefs Turn on Sharon," Washington Post, November 15, 2003]

[Abrams set to work, trying to gut the text of the road map.--Sidney Blumenthal, "America's first loyalty was to Ariel Sharon," Guardian (UK), November 14, 2003]

"SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION ENDORSING ROAD MAP LEADING TOWARDS TWO-STATE RESOLUTION OF ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT," United Nations, November 19, 2003

[Moderate Arab and Israeli politicians hammered out the Geneva Accord, a symbolic peace plan with no official status,--Eric Margolis, "Privately brokered peace best plan yet for Mideast," Toronto Sun, December 7, 2003]

Gideon Levy, "The price of ignorance," Haaretz, December 28, 2003

Amira Hass, "Words have failed us," Haaretz, March 3, 2004

Donald Macintyre, "Army chief 'emptied his magazine' at girl in Gaza," Independent, October 12, 2004

Paul de Rooij, "Amnesty International: A False Beacon?," CounterPunch, October 13, 2004

Jude Wanniski, "Who Failed at Camp David?," wanniski.com, November 12, 2004

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