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April 23, 2004/Iyar 2 5764, Vol. 56, No. 31
Bush stance riles European countries
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - President Bush's ringing endorsement of Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan has exposed differences at the heart of the diplomatic "Quartet" charged with shepherding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
While the European Union's Irish presidency said the union was broadly in favor of Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, such a move would have to be carried out "in accordance with certain conditions" identified last month by European heads of state and government.
According to Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, that would entail Palestinian Authority cooperation in any Israeli withdrawal, as well as the long-established E.U. view that any changes to Israel's pre-1967 border - known as the Green Line - could only be made by agreement between the sides.
Thrown into turmoil by Bush's move, the Quartet has called a top-level meeting for April 28 in Berlin, a senior E.U. diplomat said on April 16.
The European Union and the United States are part of the Quartet that developed and nominally has been overseeing the "road map" peace plan. The other partners are Russia and the United Nations.
The road map sets out a phased process that eventually is to lead to a Palestinian state. In the first stage, Israel was to take down illegal settlement outposts and the Palestinians were to outlaw and dismantle terrorist groups.
While Israel took some initial, halting steps against the outposts, the Palestinian Authority made clear that it would not move against terrorist groups. Despairing of finding a Palestinian partner, Sharon ultimately decided on a unilateral withdrawal and evacuation of settlements - thereby setting new borders.
In what has been seen as a significant policy change, Bush told the Israeli prime minister in Washington on April 14 that it would be "unrealistic" not to take into account facts established on the ground over the past 40 years when Israel's final borders are determined.
That was taken as an endorsement of Israeli plans to annex certain West Bank settlement blocs that are close to the Green Line and that are home to tens of thousands of Israelis. However, Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell later sought to clarify that the president was not endorsing specific changes to the border.
"All final status issues must still be negotiated between the parties," Bush said April 16.
Still, for European leaders, even tacit acceptance of changes to the Green Line is unacceptable.
Moreover, they said that Bush's statement that Pal-estinian refugees and their descendants from Israel's 1948 War of Independence would be settled in a future Palestinian state - and not in Israel, as they demand - was an attempt to determine the outcome before the two sides sit down to negotiate.
Some of the Bush proposals drew support from European diplomats. Javier Solana, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief, described them as "an opportunity to restart the implementation of the road map."
But Solana was sharply critical of Bush's comments on refugees.
"A permanent settlement must also include an agreed, just, fair and realistic solution to the refugee issue," he said in a statement.
While Brussels-based offi-cials largely observed dip-lomatic niceties, senior poli-ticians from E.U. member states were considerably more caustic about the U.S. approach.
French President Jacques Chirac called the Bush proposals "dangerous."
"On the borders, I believe that international law should be respected," Chirac told reporters in Algeria. "If we play around with international stability or the norms of international law according to circumstances or individuals, it's an unfortunate precedent."
Similar reaction came from German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who urged the Americans to adopt a more neutral role between Israelis and Palestinians.
Bush did receive some support from his strongest ally in Western Europe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Meeting with Bush in Washington on April 16, Blair said that if Israel follows through on its proposal, "the concept of a viable Palestinian state becomes a real possibility."
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