Israeli envoy heads for US to lobby against 'road map'
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A high-level Israeli government envoy begins a visit to the United States in hopes of persuading the US government to drop its support for a Palestinian state and the latest plan to achieve it known as the "road map" to peace.
Tourism Minister Benny Elon will fly Sunday to New York first and travel to Washington on Monday "to discuss the impending road map and the danger a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River poses to the State of Israel," according to an Israel government statement released late Saturday.
While no talks with members of the executive branch were scheduled, Elon was expected to meet with leaders of both the US Senate and the House of Representatives as well as prominent Evangelical Christian leaders close to the administration of President George W. Bush.
According to Israeli government spokesman Ronn Torossian, these religious leaders include Christian Coalition President Roberta Combs, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, who once said that "God gave the land to the descendants of Israel. It was not given to Palestine."
The visit follows last week's unveiling of the "road map," a plan put together by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations that calls for incremental steps toward resolving the Middle East conflict and creating a Palestinian state in 2005.
The plan provides for an immediate halt to Palestinian violence, the Israeli military's gradual withdrawal from Palestinian territories and an end to Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank.
But in a statement made public in the United States on Saturday, Elon made clear he saw the road map as a non-starter and wanted to convey to Americans that "our stay in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is not temporary."
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