Israel Says It Accepts 2 State for 2 Peoples

Sunday, December 01, 2002 Kislev 26, 5763
Israel Time: 03:08 (GMT+2)







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By Aluf Benn




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.