Artículo de JAMES BENNET en “The New York Times” del 13.05.2003
JERUSALEM, May 13 — Ahead of a meeting next week with President Bush, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon set a hard line today on retaining Israeli settlements in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Mr. Sharon dismissed as not "on the horizon" any talk of changing Israel's settlement policy, and he dismissed suggestions that the Bush administration was pressing him to dismantle settlements.
During a visit here over the weekend, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said that he raised the issue of settlements with Mr. Sharon, and that President Bush would pursue the matter when he sees Mr. Sharon on May 20.
In an interview with Israeli television, Mr. Powell said he told Mr. Sharon that settlements were "a problem," and he said the president would speak to the prime minister "in very open, straightforward, honest, candid terms about settlement activity."
A new American-backed peace plan, known as the road map, calls on Israel to dismantle all settlement outposts built since March 2001, at the same time that the Palestinian Authority cracks down on terrorism. It also calls for a freeze on Israeli settlements. Mr. Sharon insists that the Palestinians must end incitement and dismantle all terrorist organizations before Israel can begin to make concessions.
In the interview, parts of which were published today in The Jerusalem Post, Mr. Sharon suggested that there was nothing new to the American concerns. He noted that no American administration had ever supported settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the Six-Day War, but that every Israeli government built them anyway.
"In my mind this is not an issue on the horizon right now," he was quoted as saying.
Asked about dismantling settlements or outposts, he said, "It is not something today that anyone is dealing with," adding, "there is no pressure from anyone. It is only pressure from the Jews on themselves."
Mr. Sharon has repeatedly said he would make "painful concessions" for peace, while adding that he could not reveal them because they would then become the starting point, rather than the ending point, for negotiations.
In another interview a month ago, Mr. Sharon took an unusual step in listing two settlements, Beit El and Shilo, as well as Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem, before saying: "I know that we will have to part with some of these places. As a Jew, this agonizes me."
But asked by The Jerusalem Post about Bet El, Mr. Sharon said, "Jews will live there." He ridiculed the notion of "Arab sovereignty" in Bet El or Shilo.
Mr. Sharon restated his support for a Palestinian state. "I think it is good for us, and good for the Palestinians," he said. "I don't think we can continue to control another people."
But Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator, said talk of peace was meaningless without action on settlements. "It's either settlements or peace," he said. "Both cannot go together." He added, "It's the main issue for us in the road map, and Sharon's statement just reflects that he does not accept the road map."
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, assured Mr. Powell that he was ready to move to disarm terrorist groups, provided Israel also takes action on the peace plan, diplomats here said. But Mr. Abbas is demanding a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip "clean" of settlements, while Mr. Sharon envisions a Palestinian state in less than half the West Bank.
The plan calls for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace and a Palestinian state in three years.
Mr. Sharon told The Jerusalem Post that a new barrier fence Israel is building against West Bank Palestinians would sweep eastward to enclose two settlements, Ariel and Emmanuel. That route would incorporate a large swath of the West Bank on the Israeli side of the fence. The planned route of the fence, which Israel insists will not become a border, already incorporates a significant amount of the West Bank.
Mr. Sharon and Mr. Abbas are to meet Saturday night. Mr. Powell pressed the Palestinians for the meeting, though some officials said they were reluctant to hold it before Israel adopted the new peace plan. Some of Mr. Abbas' advisers warned him that in seeing Mr. Sharon now he would only polish the Israeli prime minister's image before the Bush meeting.
Most of the ministers in Mr. Sharon's government are from parties opposed to dismantling settlements and accepting a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. As a result, the so-called diplomatic Quartet behind the new peace plan — the United States, United Nations, the European Union, and Russia — has not demanded that the Israeli government formally accept it, as the Palestinians have asked.
Instead, Mr. Powell urged both sides to move forward on steps they are prepared to take. The hope appears to be that Mr. Sharon is willing to move more aggressively on the plan than most of his ministers.
In meeting with Mr. Powell on Sunday, Mr. Sharon proposed a package of gestures to ease life for Palestinians, including permitting more of them to reach Israeli jobs. Then, on Monday, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip, citing security concerns.
Quartet diplomats say they believe Mr. Sharon was withholding his substantive concessions for his meeting with President Bush, a standard diplomatic move.
"In diplomacy, you don't have your envoys cashing in the goods," one Western diplomat here said. "The moment of truth will not be produced by the Secretary's visit, but the moment of truth will be in the White House meeting."