Haaretz
Bush to assure PM: Israel won't have to retreat to Green Line
Date: Mar 31, 2004
The United States will assure Israel that it will not have to withdraw to the Green Line in a future permanent settlement with the Palestinians.
The promise appears in a letter of guarantees drafted by the American administration in exchange for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.
The U.S. rejected Israel's request to recognize the future annexation of the large settlement blocs in Ma'ale Adumim, Ariel and Etzion. Instead of referring explicitly to the settlements, the Americans propose a vaguely worded letter, which Israel would be able to present as implied recognition of the settlement blocs.
The American draft also says the Palestinian refugees will be able to return to a future Palestinian state, which will be established in keeping with President George Bush's vision. This wording will partially meet Israel's demand that the U.S. declare its objection to the right of return, which the Palestinians insist on.
Two principles guided the administration in drafting the letter of guarantees to Israel - support for the disengagement plan and providing answers for Sharon's political needs, and refraining from taking political or legal undertakings which could tie the U.S.'s hands in the future and hinder its contacts with its friends in the Arab world and Europe. The Americans don't want Egypt and other countries to pressure them to give counter guarantees to the Palestinians.
This evening, Sharon will meet American envoys Steven J. Hadley, Elliot Abrams and Willian Burns, who came to agree on the final version of the letter of guarantees that Sharon will receive at his meeting with Bush on April 14.
Israel is also asking for public American recognition of the separation fence route, after it agreed to put off building the problematic section of the fence near Ariel and putting up an intermittent fence in the "enclaves" opposite Ben-Gurion Airport and along Road 443.
"The public did not elect me prime minister to keep my seat warm for four years," Sharon said Wednesday at a speech at the high-tech conference in Tel Aviv. He said the disengagement plan is "an initiative that will prevent political collapse."
He explained there were several reasons behind the plan, including the danger of pressures on Israel to accept diplomatic plans that were harmful, and the threat of international bodies to stop assisting the Palestinians, which would lead to a "humanitarian collapse" and to "pointing an accusing finger at Israel."
Sharon said that in exchange for the disengagement, the U.S. will state in writing that it is against any plan that endangers Israel, that "does not condition progress on eliminating terror."
Sharon said the withdrawal from Gaza would "deprive the Palestinians of the historic excuse that the Israeli presence is preventing them from acting against terror."
Opposition chair MK Shimon Peres is trying to promote to the U.S. a 5 billion guarantee package for developing the Negev. Peres presented the idea to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell last month. A few days ago he discussed it with World Bank President James Wolfensohn.
At these meetings, which Sharon knows of and agreed to, Peres presents the evacuation of Gaza as a springboard to developing the Negev, according to the vision of the first prime minister David Ben-Gurion
SOURCE
*Original article mysteriously disappeared from Haaretz.
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