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September 24, 2004/Tishri 9 5765, Vol. 57, No. 4
Meetings look to 'day after' Gaza
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
UNITED NATIONS - At home, Israel's govern-ment may be preoccupied with the road to a Gaza Strip pullout, but abroad, its emphasis is on the road beyond.
Israeli diplomats, dreading the vacuum the pullout set for mid-2005 might create, have scrambled in recent weeks for U.S., European and Arab help in propping up an Israel-free Gaza Strip.
"Day after" scenarios are the focus of a flurry of meetings between Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his counterparts attending this week's opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Shalom is especially eager about meetings with foreign ministers from Arab nations, key to Israeli plans to nudge the Palestinians toward replacing Palestinians Authority President Yasser Arafat by the time Israel leaves.
"While Arafat is still in power, there is no glimmer of hope there will be moderate Palestinians that will be able to talk to us," Shalom told a gathering of Jewish leaders convened Sept. 20 by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The foreign minister met with counterparts from Tunisia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania and spoke with Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers early this week at an event honoring Seeds of Peace, a group promoting dialogue between Israeli and Arab youths.
The meetings appeared to pay off: Qatari leader Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was predictably tough on Israel in his U.N. speech Sept. 21, blaming the Jewish state for the dire economic straits of the Palestinians.
However, Hamad did not mention Arafat at all, never mind issue the once-standard call for the Palestinian leader's release from virtual house arrest.
Qatar is home to the most influential Arab satellite TV channel, Al-Jazeera; the sheikh does not directly influence its coverage, but the omission was nonetheless telling. Should Israel persuade Arab opinion makers to diminish Arafat's status as a victim, that could undermine his standing toward Palestinian elections scheduled for before the withdrawal.
The Arab state most key to Israel's hopes of a smooth Gaza transition is Egypt, which is committed to retraining and reorganizing Palestinian security forces toward the Israeli evac-uation.
Egyptian officials have strong-armed Arafat into agreeing to consolidate a myriad of security services into just three bodies, which is likely to hamper Arafat's longstanding strategy of maintaining power by playing one armed Palestinian faction against the other.
Egypt also has invited the first cadre of Palestinian police officers - 45 of them - for training in Egypt.
In addition, talks in Cairo appear to be heading toward an agreement among the various Palestinian factions - including Hamas, the Islamist faction - to keep the peace once Israel leaves Gaza. Israel officially discourages the inclusion of terrorist groups in "cease-fire" agreements, but privately, Israeli officials concede the necessity of getting all factions on board.
In response to Egypt's efforts, Israel has tamped down its criticism of Egypt for failing to stop arms smuggling on the Egypt-Gaza border.
"Egypt has changed its attitude during the last year," said Shalom, not long ago one of the leading government skeptics of Egyptian will-ingness to cooperate with Israel.
The new Egyptian-Israeli closeness is encouraging for Israel, but there are still gaps.
Shalom touted new com-merce zones in Egypt for Palestinian laborers to replace the ones on the Israeli-Gaza border shut down because of the security threat they posed. But Egyptian officials are not enthusiastic about masses of Palestinians crossing their border each day.
Additionally, Egypt is making clear to Israel its position that the Gaza withdrawal should be a first step toward Palestinian statehood, not an end in itself. Commitment to Palestinian statehood is unlikely in the current volatile political environment in Israel.
Israel is not focused only on Arab support for the withdrawal. European assistance is also seen as crucial to helping the Palestinians onto their feet.
Shalom was also meeting this week with Javier Solana, the European Union's secretary-general. Israel wants the Europeans to contribute to Palestinian infrastructure needs once it withdraws from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
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