Weisglass presents pullout proposal to Rice

[Whoa_Nelly]

The chief of staff of the Prime Minister's Bureau, Dov Weisglass, yesterday presented U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, answering her questions about the West Bank fence during a meeting in Washington yesteday.

Weisglass outlined the plan for unilateral withdrawal from the territories to a "security line" that includes the evacuation of some settlements.

The two agreed that the Palestinian Authority cannot be a partner to the political process in its present state, and that the Palestinian side is to blame for the complete standstill.

Weisglass explained that Israel would not wait for the Palestinians, and would initiate disengagement steps as part of U.S. President George W. Bush's vision set out a speech he made in June, 2002. Sharon intends to go to Washington in the next few weeks to present the disengagement plan to Bush.

more...
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/386099.html

[damnraddem]

1. Oh, yes, the aggrieved party must be to blame for the standstill, ...

not the cynical party that has not just allowed but encouraged the settlers. But now even Sharon is afraid of what the settlers have wrought: the possible death of any reasonable two-state solution, so the prospect of a greater Israel in which Palestinians are set to become a growing majority. A pull back from 'some' settlements? How about a pull back to 1967 borders?

Or a pull back to 1948 boundaries? Well, that is not possible, anymore than is going back to the pre-1948 status, or maybe to the 1880 status. Israel is there, a fact on the ground. A two-state solution has long been possible, and might conceivably still be. But the longer the "standstill" goes on (which is not a standstill, rather continued settlement), the less viable such a solution will become. And a one-state solution WILL have a Palestinian majority soon. Thus, there remains the question of whether its state would be a democratic one, hence no longer a Jewish state, or will be a pariah state like South Africa was.

[mbperrin]

2. So nice to see that Condi and Sharon can agree with anyone about

anything!

The fact that they're both fascistic death-lovers is beside the point!