Aggo: I, too, think the Bush Administration and the UN must step in end
this deadly conflict that intends to engulf the entire region.
I wish to propose a thought on one possible way to get Sharon and the
Kinneset to stop the current action. Since they are the highest
recipient of US foreign aid why don't we indicate to them that we will
withhold any further funding until they pull back and become a part of a
peace process.
At the same time, we should work with the Arab Council to return to the
table, along with Arafat, so that they can come up with a plan that will
end the conflict from their perspective. Both the Arabs and Israeli's
must discover a way for them to coexist instead of being bent on
destroying each other.
After this, an international conference focusing on how to create
political, economic and health systems that respond to the people's
basic needs in Palestine and Israel should be held with true goals and
processes to make these things come about.
These are some proposals to consider.
Stephen H. Braunginn
President/CEO
Urban League of Greater Madison
251-8550
-----Original Message-----
From: Aggo Akyea [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 12:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: THE U.S. MUST LEAD
THE U.S. MUST LEAD
The New York Times
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
With bloodshed increasing by the day in the Middle East, someone has to
change the political dynamic before violence consumes Israel and
destroys the national aspirations of the Palestinians. The only world
leader with the authority and influence to make a difference at this
perilous hour is President George W. Bush. Though he may not want to
step up American involvement, Bush has no choice. His administration
must work with other governments in the region and the world at large to
create a new diplomatic opening that can help still the violence and
bring the conflict back into the political and diplomatic arena, where
it belongs.
Understandably infuriated by the recent spate of deadly bombings,
Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, seems determined to end terrorism
by military means alone. Sharon must defend the security of Israel. But
simply sending tanks into the West Bank and Gaza Strip will not end
Palestinian violence. Bush does Israel no favors by failing to say so
more clearly.
The challenge facing the White House is formidable. The combination of
Sharon and Yasser Arafat never offered great promise for peacemaking,
and the Bush administration's early efforts to end the violence and
rekindle negotiations fell short. Nevertheless, the White House took too
long to appreciate the gravity of the present crisis. Even now it
undermines its own tentative diplomatic efforts with inconsistent
messages. Bush's public expressions of understanding over the weekend of
Israel's siege of Arafat's compound in Ramallah seemed to contradict
America's vote just hours earlier for a United Nations Security Council
resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its troops. The president's
remarks also may have complicated the work of his special envoy, Anthony
Zinni, sent to win agreement from both sides on a cease-fire leading to
a withdrawal of Israeli forces from West Bank towns.
There is no moral equivalence between the indefensible evil of suicide
bombings and Israel's military actions to defeat terror. Still,
Washington must find ways to insist that both sides show greater
restraint. It should also begin organizing a broad international effort
to shape a peace settlement with which Israelis and Palestinians can
live.
There are plenty of constructive ideas to build on, including the
substantial progress made by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in
their last round of talks early last year, an American-sponsored UN
resolution last month calling for an end to violence and the creation of
a Palestinian state, and the Saudi proposal for a full Arab-Israeli
peace now endorsed by the Arab League. What is needed is the will to
move this conflict back to the negotiating table, something America
alone can supply.
Washington should start by trying to resuscitate Zinni's flagging
mission. The White House should press Israel to withdraw from Ramallah
and other West Bank cities. Zinni should call on Sharon to agree to a
clear link between the security provisions of the cease-fire plan
outlined last year by George Tenet, the CIA director, and the more
political elements of the negotiation road map proposed by former
Senator George Mitchell. Even if Arafat agrees to enforce a cease-fire,
he would have a hard time making it stick without visible progress
toward ending Israeli occupation and achieving Palestinian statehood.
Bush should also send Secretary of State Colin Powell to mobilize
international backing for a new peace effort. He should enlist support
from President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Tony Blair of
Britain and Arab leaders like Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,
King Abdullah of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
The framework on which recent peace talks were built, the Oslo agreement
of 1993, has been all but swept away by the violence. But one crucial
element remains and must be preserved - Oslo's ultimate vision of two
separate states, one Jewish and one Palestinian, living together in
peace. Israeli and Palestinian leaders say they still believe in this
two-state solution, although they have stopped believing in each other.
To get them talking about it again will take concerted outside help.
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