helpforhomeschoolers
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What exactly is the so-called roadmap?
It is intended to be a goal-driven, phase-by-phase route to ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians within two years. It is also meant to have specific target dates, benchmarks and reciprocal confidence-building measures built in.
The plan was pieced together by diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, and was amended after consultations with Israelis and Palestinians.
What are the main stages in the plan?
Phase 1 (originally intended to take place by May 2003): End to violence against Israelis and Palestinians; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections
Phase 2: (June-Dec 2003) Creation of an independent Palestinian state; international conference and international monitoring of compliance with roadmap
Phase 3 (2004-2005): Second international conference; permanent status agreement and end of conflict; agreement on final borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements; Arab states to agree to peace deals with Israel
How important is US involvement in the process?
Very important - the US is the only country with sufficient leverage to get things moving.
Other countries and mediators can make some progress but the Israelis do not trust the roadmap's other backers - the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
The Palestinian leadership has also put its trust in American mediation, despite the fact that Washington is Israel's main ally and military backer.
That is why most observers believe a deal is only possible with active American involvement.
President George Bush was in the Middle East in June putting his weight behind the roadmap.
The president's presence in the region was meant to be a reward to the Palestinians for appointing a new prime minister and to the Israelis for accepting the roadmap.
It may also have been an attempt to convince the Arab public that the Palestinian issue matters to Mr Bush - perhaps counteracting negative impressions left by the Iraq war.
The president's National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was also in the region to reinforce the point.
Is the roadmap likely to work when other peace initiatives have failed in the past?
Optimists say this time, in a new Middle East after the war in Iraq, there will be unprecedented pressure on each side here. Peace brokers believe this pressure and focus will force the two sides into making the concessions necessary for a deal to be struck.
Pessimists say the fall of Saddam Hussein will not - in and of itself - have any effect on the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic. They also doubt the depth of Mr Bush's commitment to the peace process - especially as he is facing re-election next year.
The fact is the roadmap itself does not offer any solutions that have not been tried in the past and failed. But if the two sides have grown weary of the conflict, the plan - if properly applied and implemented - does provide a way out.
What is the position of Palestinian militants towards the roadmap?
The two main Palestinian militant Islamic groups - Hamas and Islamic Jihad - have announced a three-month ceasefire which has helped calm the situation allowing the first steps to be made on the roadmap plan.
The mainstream nationalist Fatah movement - led by Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen - followed suit, although without the co-operation of armed splinter groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.
Although the ceasefire has given a boost to the peace process, the militant groups do not support the roadmap. They see it as a surrender to Israel and the United States.
Abu Mazen has always said the best way to deal with the militants is to negotiate a suspension of hostilities. Israel, with some US backing, wants him to forcibly disarm militants who fall under Palestinian security control.
There are fears among Palestinians that such a policy may lead to civil war between the Palestinian factions.
How committed is Israel to implement the roadmap?
It is not yet clear. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has publicly accepted the idea of a Palestinian state - which is one of the main aims of the roadmap. He has started withdrawing Israeli forces from Palestinian areas.
But these moves can be reversed, and Israel's reservations over the timing and order of moves called for by the roadmap may make substantial, swift progress hard to achieve.
Would the proposed Palestinian state be viable?
The roadmap explicitly aims to make it so, but many Palestinians question whether Israel is really prepared to allow such a state to come into being.
For the state to be viable it will have to have territorial contiguity, which will mean Israel dismantling most of its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians who support the so-called two-state solution say all of the land captured by Israel in 1967 must become the future Palestine, so that means all the settlements will have to go.
Add to that the need for a state to control its own borders and airspace, as well as its water supply and other natural resources, and it is clear that the viability of a future Palestinian state will be a fraught issue.
If the roadmap were implemented, how would it affect Israeli settlers and Palestinian refugees?
These are two of the most difficult areas of dispute - one group because they won't be moved from their current location and the other because they insist on returning to homes they left decades ago.
The roadmap delays final agreements on both issues until the end of the process. In the meantime it calls for an initial freeze on settlement activity and dismantling of settlements built in the last two years.
Mr Sharon has said repeatedly now that Israel would have to make "painful concessions" for "true peace, real peace, peace for generations". Many observers interpreted that as a willingness from Mr Sharon - an architect of the whole settlement project - to dismantle settlements, but it is not clear how many he will dispose of.
As for the refugees, Palestinians see the issue as one of human rights and justice, while Israel fears it will be unable to survive as a Jewish state if it allows millions of Palestinians to settle within its borders.
The roadmap calls for "an agreed, just, fair and realistic solution" to the issue - something that has proved impossible to realise until now.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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