Word: palestinians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Once again opportunity has passed us by. Until America faces up to the unpleasant reality that the land in question is rightfully Palestinian, no number of treaties or summits will achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. The only positive results of the recent summit will be new drains on the U.S. taxpayer to coax Premier Begin to give up a few Israeli settlements in the Sinai...
...seperate peace, since Israel views the diffusion of Egypt as a military threat as essential to its primary interest, Israeli national security. The question for Sadat then was how much he could get in return for the separate settlement toward resolving the primary issue for the Arab countries, the Palestinian problem. What Sadat decided was to settle for Israel's agreement to a "framework" for solving the Palestinian question, in the hope that once underway, movement toward a self-ruled Palestinian entity on the West Bank could not easily be stopped...
...think that Sadat was wrong in making this calculation. The Camp David "framework" document does provide an abstract outline that points in the direction of a concrete answer to the hopes of the Palestinians. For the first time in a while it reintegrates into the diplomatic dialogue adherence to U.N. Resolution 242, as well as the commitment to resolve the Palestinian issue "in all its aspects." It also calls on Egypt and Israel to formulate concrete "modalities" for negotiations over the status of the West Bank that will include Palestinian representatives, and that will give the West Bank Palestinians veto...
...would seem therefore that even though there is no hard-and-fast guarantee that a Palestinian state, or even the promised "self-ruled entity," will grow out of this framework, it is in the interest of the moderate Arab states--Jordan and Saudi Arabia-to try to work within it. It would also appear in the interest of the more radical Arab parties--specifically Syria, with its influence over the PLO--not to sabotage it. The Arabs have nothing to lose now, since with Egypt committed to a separate peace they cannot hope to confront Israel militarily for some time...
...involved--the U.S., Egypt, and Israel--act in good faith in the coming weeks to give substance, not only to the Egypt-Israeli settlement, but also to a mechanism for resolving the status of the West Bank, and for dealing fully and humanely with the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. It is only then that the full promise of Camp David can begin to be realized...