The Situation

Monday, December 01, 2003

Geneva, Geneva

Tropical landscape, 70x50 canvas by Silvia Rosenberg

t all depends who you ask, though according to a Haaretz poll this morning, there are some surprises about what they’ll say. Geneva – whether the document is called understandings, an accord, or an agreement – has divided the country roughly into one-third in favor, one-third opposed and one-third undecided. And some 17 percent of Likud voters support Geneva, said the poll, as opposed to the party’s leadership, which is uniformly against it. As the delegations from both sides descended on Switzerland for today’s ceremony – not a signing, but a launching -- the rhetoric of the opponents turned occasionally vicious while supporters waxed idealistic about what the document hammered out by teams headed by Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabo, really means.

This morning, on the two-hour Israel Radio current events he co-hosts with former Israel Radio director Amnon Nadav, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s favorite journalist, Uri Dan, called the document ‘a political rag’ and the people behind it, he said, were “political monkeys,’ ‘traitors,’ and ‘saboteurs’ who are ‘only concerned about looking good in the eyes of Israel’s enemies.’ If Ben-Gurion (who died 30 years ago this week) were alive, said Dan, ‘he’d have sent little Isser Harel to arrest the initiators’ seemingly regretting that Sharon doesn’t send Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter to do the same. (Shaorn was said to have a case of the flu and would therefore miss the official ceremonies today at Ben Gurion’s Negev grave in Sde Boker). Uri Dan was not out of the mainstream of the Right – Health Minister Danny Naveh said the Israelis attending the Geneva ceremonies ‘are serving the interests of Arab propaganda … the same gang that brought us Oslo didn’t learn a thing .. I’m not afraid of talks with Palestinians, the real problem is that the Palestinians have no intention of fulfilling any agreements they sign.’

t was not unusual rhetoric for Uri Dan – or Naveh -- but it reflected the combination of scorn and concern on the Right – and what Dan claims is the Center – about the document’s impact. And there is no doubt it has had an impact, and not only has it riveted public opinion in Israel, it has exposed rifts inside Palestinian society and politics. Not unexpectedly, Hamas is against the document, but so are parts of Fateh, with the fault line more or less along three lines: the Fateh’s old guard, which arrived in the territories from Tunis with Yasser Arafat after Oslo; the West Bank and Gazan leadership of the first intifada; and the young leadership in the refugee camps of Jenin and Nablus in particular, where the mayors are complaining that the cities are on the verge of anarchy because of the street gangs and the absence of Palestinian Authority forces imposing law and order (they are prevented from carrying arms by IDF forces keeping both towns under siege).

Whether by coincidence or not, the army was conducting extensive arrest operations in the Ramallah area today, focusing, said Army Radio, on Hamas activists in the city. Dozens were arrested during the morning and by noon, three Hamas men were killed. It’s just these kinds of operations that the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’ says Israel should cease if it is serious about striking a cease-fire deal with the PA – and helping the PA impose a cease-fire on the armed factions. Reports about contacts between Sharon and Qurei’ confidantes (Omri Sharon and Dov Weisglass on the Israeli side, Jibril Rajoub, Saeb Erekat and Qurei’ bureau chief Hassan Abdel Libda) proliferate, with each side more or less understanding what the other side needs. Stated simply, Israel needs a cease-fire and the Palestinians need the pressure eased. But the two prime ministers are meanwhile directing tough rhetoric to their domestic audiences – and to the U.S., seeking its intervention. That intervention right now is in the form of Assistant Secretary of State William Burns visiting the region, telling the Israelis to remove some of the illegal outposts (Mofaz promised some would go this weekend, but they’re all outposts that have already been dismantled and reestablished by settlers) and the Palestinians to stop making precondition demands for a Qurei’-Sharon meeting. Qurei’ is now saying that his demands are not preconditions for a meeting, but simply what Israel must do to prove it is serious about moving forward.

Among those demands is that Israel cease construction of the separation fence. And the issue is as controversial as ever inside the country. A High Court Justice, hearing a petition against the route of the fence in the Jerusalem area, warned today that legislation will be necessary if the government truly intends to go ahead with the project, but just across the Givat Ram hilltops, at the Knesset, the government, through Likud MKs, quashed quick first readings on four bills (including two from coalition MKs from Shinui) that would reroute the fence according to the army’s original plan (more or less on the Green Line) and make sure the fence is budgeted in 2004. So far, the fence is mentioned in a single paragraph in the budget for 2004, with neither any details nor sums mentioned. Also in Jerusalem, related to the fence, residents of Jebel Mukatar announced they would go to court to fight City Hall’s approval for a privately-funded 550-unit housing complex for Jews in the heart of the East Jerusalem neighborhood..

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