Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
|
posted
Israeli envoy to UN:
We Accept Two States...
for Two Peoples
Aluf Benn
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/p...SubContrassID=0
Sunday, December 01, 2002 Kislev 26, 5763
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations informed the UN General Assembly on Friday that Israel accepts the vision of "two states living side by side in peace and security" as a basis for a peace deal with the Palestinians.
This is the first time any official Israeli representative has explicitly used the "two states for two peoples" formula. Hitherto, Israeli officials have always said merely that they accept the principles outlined in U.S. President George Bush's June 24 speech, but without elaborating on these principles.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Yehuda Lancry made the statement during the General Assembly's annual debate on the Palestinian issue on Friday, and his remarks were included in the UN's official protocols.
Lancry also told the assembly that the essence of peace is security, and charged that so far, the Palestinian leadership has taken no action against terror, despite Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's "sporadic denunciations" of terror. But the ambassador, whose term expires soon, ended on a personal note by saying that he still believes in the possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
This week, the UN will hold its annual vote on resolutions pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict, during which Israel traditionally finds itself with no supporters except the United States and sometimes Micronesia or the Marshall Islands. The current resolution calls for restoring the situation in the territories to what it was on the eve of the intifada and a prompt resumption of negotiations on a final-status agreement.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon criticized his American hosts during his first visit to Washington last week, saying it was the administration's response to Israel's siege of Arafat's Muqata compound in September that helped to rehabilitate Arafat and to weaken the alternative leadership that had begun to crystallize following Bush's June 24 speech. The U.S. was vehemently opposed to the siege and exerted heavy pressure on Israel to lift it. Ya'alon's charge was a response to repeated accusations by U.S. officials that the siege itself strengthened Arafat and scotched efforts to reform the PA.
Ya'alon, who met with several leading administration and defense establishment officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, urged all his interlocutors to isolate Arafat, saying there would be no positive developments as long as Arafat remained in charge.
The recent talks between Fatah and Hamas about the possibility of declaring a cease-fire with Israel failed largely because Arafat was not interested in having them succeed, Ya'alon charged. He said that in addition to Arafat, everyone involved in terrorism must be removed from the arena.
Ya'alon also expressed reservations about the administration's "road map" for realizing Bush's two-state vision, saying the security components of the plan are too weak.
The U.S. has already informed the PA that a final draft of the "road map" will not be approved by December 20, as originally planned, but will be postponed until after the Israeli elections on January 28 and the establishment of a new government. The State Department had wanted to adhere to the original timetable, which called for the document to be approved at a December 20 meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quartet(the U.S., UN, European Union and Russia), but the administration decided to accede to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request that the issue be deferred until after the elections.
--------------------
God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
