e_Paper_Thursday_December 30, 2016

10
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2016
DT
World
John Kerry’s Middle East peace framework
• AFP, Washington, DC
There was little new in US Secretary
of State John Kerry’s outline
for measures to revive peace talks
between Israel and the Palestinians
presented Wednesday.
Nothing in his speech will bind
incoming US President-elect Donald
Trump, and Kerry’s intervention has
been angrily rejected by Israel.
Here are the “six principles” Kerry
says must underlie a renewed
search for peace based on an Israel-Palestine
two-state solution.
Recognised international borders
On November 22, 1967, after Israel’s
victory in the Six-Day War over its Arab
neighbours, the UN Security Council
(UNSC) passed its Resolution 242. Israel’s
win left it in possession of the
Golan Heights, Gaza, Sinai, the West
Bank and East Jerusalem, in addition
to its original territory. Under UNSC
242, Israel should hand back its new
land and in 1993 the Palestinian Liberation
Organisation agreed that 242
could serve as a basis for talks.
Kerry’s speech insisted that
UNSC 242 has long been “accepted
by both sides” and must be
followed, albeit with “mutually
agreed equivalent swaps.”
‘Two states for two peoples’
Israel did not welcome Kerry’s
speech, but many Israelis will welcome
his second “core principle” for
any deal. While the final settlement
will see the Palestinians installed in
their own state, they must in turn
recognise Israel “as a Jewish state.”
‘Realistic solution for refugees’
There are an estimated 5m Palestinians
claiming descent from
those displaced from their homes
during the creation of Israel. Their
long-standing demand for a “right
of return” to homes in some cases
now within pre-1967 Israel has long
been a stumbling block.
Kerry’s principles acknowledged
that international assistance and
some kind of compensation will be
necessary and fair for these people.
Jerusalem capital of two states
Israel claims the city of Jerusalem as
its “undivided” capital, and Trump
plans to move the US embassy there
in support of this idea.
But the city holds sites holy to
Muslims, Jews and Christians alike
and the Arab world would erupt in
anger if a sole Israeli claim prevailed.
Kerry admitted that the city’s
fate “is the most sensitive issue for
both sides” and suggested it be the
“internationally recognised capital
of the two states.”
Satisfy Israel’s security needs
Israeli forces and residents withdrew
from the Gaza Strip in September
2005, but peace did not
break out there. Gaza has since
fallen under the sway of Hamas, an
armed Islamist movement, and is a
source of periodic attacks on Israel
and a target for harsh retaliation.
Kerry’s fifth principle stated
that the larger West Bank must not
become a similar threat, and that
Israel must retain a right to intervene.
Kerry said that a team led by US
General John Allen had worked on
“innovative approaches to creating
unprecedented, multi-layered border
security.”
Normalised relations
Finally, under Kerry’s vision, a final
status settlement between Israel
and a future Palestine would
see an end to outstanding regional
issues.
“For Israel, this must also bring
broader peace with its Arab neighbours,”
he said. •
FACTBOX
Key crises in US-Israel ties
The latest diplomatic spat between Israel
and Washington over the United
States abstaining in a UN Security Council
resolution on settlements is not the
first crisis between the two allies.
US President Barack Obama’s frosty
relationship with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu hit new lows last
week after the UN vote calling for an
end to Israeli settlement building passed
14-0.
And on Wednesday, in a parting shot
from the Obama administration before
US President-elect Donald Trump is
sworn in on January 20, US Secretary of
State John Kerry warned that building
settlements on Palestinian land threatens
Israel’s very future as a democracy.
1975: The Sinai crisis
Perhaps the most significant crisis was
in 1975, when Washington pressed Israel
to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula,
which it had seized during the 1967 Six-
Day War.
But Israel refused to do so without
a full peace deal with Egypt, prompting
US president Gerald Ford to inform Israeli
prime minister Yitzhak Rabin that
Washington would conduct a “reassessment”
of bilateral ties.
Between March and August of 1975,
US arms shipments to Israel were suspended
– a major step given Washington’s
position as Israel’s biggest provider
of financial and military aid.
1985: The Pollard affair
Washington’s arrest in 1985 of American
intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard,
who passed classified US information to
Israel, marked a “major low” in the relationship.
It was a regular source of tension
for three decades until his eventual
release in November 2015.
Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment,
with the affair sparking a
crisis in ties that only ended when Israel
promised to end all espionage activities
on US soil.
1990: White House phone number
In a shaky start to cooperation between
George Bush’s administration
and that of Israeli premier Yitzhak
Shamir, the US secretary of state very
publicly rebuked Israel over conditions
it sought to impose on the Palestinians
in peace talks.
Secretary of state James Baker directed
the following remarks to Shamir
at a meeting with the House Foreign Affairs
Committee:
“I have to tell you that everybody
over there should know that the telephone
number is 1-202-456-1414...
When you’re serious about peace, call
us.”
2015: Netanyahu Congress
address
Two weeks before the March 17 general
election in Israel, Netanyahu travelled to
Washington to give a speech to the US
Congress at the invitation of Republican
House of Representatives speaker John
Boehner, bypassing diplomatic protocol
by not running it through the White
House.
Incensed, Obama and dozens of
Democrats boycotted the speech, in
which Netanyahu railed against an
emerging world deal with Iran over its
nuclear programme.
2016: UN vote on settlements
The UN resolution that sparked the latest
crisis, backed unanimously by the
rest of the 15 powers on the Security
Council, effectively declared Israel’s settlements
in areas of east Jerusalem and
the West Bank beyond its 1967 border to
be illegal.
A furious Netanyahu, whose rightwing
coalition is backed by the settler
movement and who has insisted the
home building is no threat to peace, accused
Obama and Kerry of orchestrating
the Security Council vote. •
Source: AFP
Benjamin Netanyahu
subject of criminal
investigation
• Tribune International Desk
Israel’s attorney general has ordered
police to open a criminal
investigation into two unspecified
matters involving the prime minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu.
A spokeswoman for Israel’s justice
ministry declined to respond
to the report. Netanyahu has in
the past denied wrongdoing in the
purchase of submarines from Germany,
where media have reported
a potential conflict of interest involving
his lawyer.
Netanyahu and his family have
been subject to a series of allegations
over the past two decades. In
1997, it was decided that there was
not enough evidence to charge him
over the appointment of an attorney
general, though prosecutors
said they had a “tangible suspicion”
about Netanyahu’s role in the
scandal. •