-Caveat Lector- >From ArabicNews.CoM Deep differences characterize 1st day of Clinton's visit Palestine, Politics, 12/13/98 Separated by deep differences, US President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are both in waiting for the outcome of the Monday session of the Palestine National Council in Gaza. Israel wanted the PNC to cancel the national charter that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. The Palestinians insist the charter was amended back in 1996 and therefore "there is no need to cancel what has already been canceled." President Clinton is to attend the Gaza session and his views of what happens in the course of the session will be crucial in decided the next steps. If President Clinton says the hand raising voting in the PNC was enough and if Netanyahu says he is satisfied with the voting, a three-way summit might take place on Monday night, or Tuesday morning at the latest between Presidents Clinton and Arafat and premier Netanyahu. Clinton arrived in Israel late Saturday night. Israeli president Ezer Weizman greeted him with a warm speech, unlike the one made by Netanyahu who, against all protocols, delivered a long speech and switched between English and Hebrew. According to the protocol, only the two presidents were supposed to speak: Clinton and Weizman. President Clinton stressed the subject of security in his speech, and said that the United States would march in the process along side of Israel. US sources said the Clinton Administration disagrees with Netanyahu when he claims that the Palestinians have not implemented any of the Wye Agreement clauses. Israel, meanwhile, claims it would not be ready to carry out any of the outstanding clauses of Wye Agreement until after the PNA meets a set of Israeli demands, most of which were not included in Wye Agreement. Israel wants a declaration from President Arafat that he would not declare the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by May next year. Israel also wants the PNC to cancel the national charter and PNA to take more steps against opposition groups. The Palestinians want Israel to release political and security prisoners, to carry out the further redeployment of its troops in the West Bank, to expand the pace of the third phase withdrawal which stands at the moment at only one percent of the West Bank territories, to open the safe passages between the West Bank and Gaza and to authorize the opening of work to establish the Gaza seaport. Approximately 15,000 police, soldiers, Israeli general security services, American secret service, PNA police and preventative security are part of the safety arrangements for President Clinton's visit. The unprecedented security caused heavy traffic disruptions in West Jerusalem. Surrounded by hundreds of police and guards, the Hilton hotel is combed daily by sappers and explosive sniffing dogs as snipers took positions on the surrounding buildings. Late last week, Israeli and American security officials carried out a security check of all government offices which look out onto the prime minister's office building, where Clinton and Netanyahu met Sunday. Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Shami said in Gaza that Clinton has come to the region in order to "concoct conspiracies" against the opposition movement. "Clinton's mission is therefore satanic." Shami said the current wave of demonstrations in the Palestinian territories in solidarity with the political prisoners might not be enough to secure their release. Instead, he called for abducting Israeli soldiers in order to negotiate their release for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ - _______ ____ ______ / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ http://www.MiddleEast.Org CLINTON IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE ________________________________________________________________ A "PEACE PROCESS" BUILT ON POLITICAL QUICKSAND By Mark Bruzonsky* Clinton arrived to blaring trumpets very late Saturday evening. He arrived in Israel, not Palestine, and no one should doubt that basic significance. One of the greatest ironies of this generation is that while the world mobilized to bring the Apartheid of South Africa to an end, at nearly the same historic moment it allowed the U.S and Israel to implement a variant of Apartheid in the Middle East. Another generation of conflict is thus ensured, no matter what the politicians of the moment proclaim. Whatever further symbolism takes place with Clinton's Gaza visit, it is sure to be feverishly played up by the Arafat crowd. But the basic reality that Gaza has been twisted into a ghetto/prison surrounded on three sides by an Israeli-patrolled electrified fence, on the fourth by the Israeli-guarded sea, and internally "policed" by a quisling regime, cannot be masked indefinitely. This "peace process" is build on political quicksand. After nine unprecedented days together at Wye Plantation the protagonists couldn't even agree on the relatively simple matter of who among the Palestinian prisoners would be released. When it comes to the "Palestinian Covenant", supposedly the reason for Clinton's visit, Arafat hasn't even managed to gather a quorum of the once proud Palestine National Congress, not to mention pursue a serious formal vote on such a weighty matter. And with Ariel Sharon in charge of the "final agreement", Israeli settlements still expanding at feverish pace, and "by-pass" roads increasingly criss-crossing the very areas Arafat claims for his quasi- State, the future may not be clearly forseeable, but what is at least clear is that what Arafat keeps proclaiming is certainly not what is coming to pass. About the only thing the Arafat regime manages to consistently pursue is to bribe and cajole many into parroting its own slogans while repressing everyone else into fearful silence and depressed acquiescence. The fragmented and confused remains of the Palestinian nationalist movement has been meeting in Damascus in recent days, declaring their disgust with Arafat and all that he has wrought. But they not only lack the requisite power and resources to pursue their goals, they lack basic cohesion and strategy as well, thus constantly relegating themselves to marginality on history's sidelines. The Jordanian Hashemite regime, colluding with the Americans and Israelis more than ever before, prevented many Palestinians from crossing the border and even getting to the Damascus meeting. And the 300 or so Palestinians who did manage to gather there hardly even managed to get the world's attention at a time when world attention is focused on their very concerns. American Presidents come and go; the U.S. has serious institutions and long-term strategies that transcend individual administrations. Too many among the Arabs just don't seem to understand this basic reality, essentially mortgaging their own fate to whomever happens to be in the White House at the moment believing that a few kind words are a substitute for actual policies, even while history constantly proves otherwise. But unlike the Arabs, Western countries, and that includes the Israelis, have serious institutions and strategies transending individual leaders and "regimes." At the political level, the Arabs today are little better off, as the millenium nears its turn, then they were generations ago at the time of the Ottoman Empire's collapse. They were as outmanuevered at the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 as they were at the Paris Peace Conference of 1918. Their corrupt, inept, and infiltrated "client regimes" continue to be easily manipulated by the tried and true "divide and conquer" approach. With such an historical dichotomy, the West manages to get one Arab leader or another to sign this agreement or that, constantly pushing forward their own interests while Arab interests, not to mention rights, are constantly trampeled under. Until the nationalist Palestinians and their supporters seriously organize themselves in a coherent and determined way to oppose the Apartheid Reservations fate, their destiny will continue to be subverted. Ongoing and sophisticated opposition using modern means of communication, as well as the building up of sustainable institutions that can both conceive and pursue alternative policies and principled goals, are what today's situation urgently requires. * Background and publication information for Mark Bruzonsky is at: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/mab.htm 24-Hour Number for Press Calls is 202 686-2371. _______________________________________________________________ TO RECEIVE MER regularly email with subject: SEND MER To stop receiving MER email with subject: Stop MER ------------------------ M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S (c) Copyright 1998 - Mid-East Realities - WWW.MiddleEast.Org Please distribute to the media and other interested parties ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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