Aftermath of the Roadmap

Submitted by Yale Zussman (United States), Jul 9, 2003 at 01:53

Daniel,

It seems to me that the US government could prevent the roadmap from deteriorating the way Oslo did by imposing two conditions on what would happen if trouble continued after the roadmap reaches fruition:

In the event of renewed or continued incitement, violence, or irredentism:

1. Israel, at its sole discretion, would have the right to reoccupy parrts of the Palestinian state and expel Palestinians from that territory.

2. The Arab states, who would become signatories to any agreement arising out of the road map, would agree to absorb any Palestinians expelled for these reasons.

Since we have an offer from Prince Abdullah to lead the Arab states in recognizing Israel if there is a complete withdrawal, these condition would give the Arab states an incentive to keep the pressure on the Palestinians to keep the peace. If the rest of the Arab world lined up against renewed violence, there is some chance that peace could be established.

On the other hand, any Arab state that doesn't sign on to these conditions would be signaling that it expects incitement and violence to continue/be renewed after the road map has been implemented, which should be sufficient to abandon this approach.

Meanwhile, the adoption of these provisions will send a message to the Palestinians that what they get under the road map is all that they will ever get. If this is not sufficient, then they will have to settle for nothing.

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