Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Reagan also declared bluntly that "the United States will not support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and we will not support annexation or permanent control by Israel." As for the final status of the territories, Reagan asserted, in perhaps the most significant sentence of his address, "It is the firm view of the United States that self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan offers the best chance for a durable, just and lasting peace." He called specifically on Jordan and representatives of the Palestinians...
...initiative since the Eisenhower era. The specific ideas in it were not new; indeed they almost mirror the expert consensus on the necessary and the possible that has evolved in recent years. But the President went further than any of his predecessors in embracing a broadly defined concept of Palestinian autonomy as a goal that the U.S. should promote. His view that the West Bank and Gaza should be linked to Jordan was another proposal that the U.S. had not adopted officially before; both Carter and Reagan had previously declined to suggest what the final status of those territories should...
...plan was to influence Arab deliberations at the Fez summit. At best, the summit might have endorsed an eight-point plan advanced last year by King Fahd. While that plan contains an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist, it also insists on an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Administration officials feared the summit would reject even that plan and take a strong pro-P.L.O. position. Says one: "We had to take the initiative before their positions congealed...
Clearly, Jordanian participation in Palestinian autonomy negotiations would be a key to their success. The foreign ministry in Amman issued a mild statement that Reagan's initiative "contains a number of positive elements that deserve to be studied," but King Hussein said nothing. Hussein would like to regain authority over the West Bank, but he accepted a 1974 decision by an Arab summit in Rabat that only the P.L.O. could speak for the Palestinians; his country, which has a Palestinian majority, is more vulnerable to P.L.O. pressure than any other in the Arab world. Hussein dares not venture...
...least in public. Asserted Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations: "There are some very positive statements in there." He specified Reagan's call for "hard, fair and direct negotiating between the parties" and his "lack of support for an independent Palestinian state." Berman's criticisms were surprisingly mild: "What I am disappointed in is that the President seems to have altered the role of the U.S. from that of an honest broker to a party that now has a public position that must be defended...