Tuesday, May 06, 2003
I somehow have fallen behind events in the Middle East. Last week, the Bush administration published its Roadmap to Peace for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict developed by the United States in cooperation with Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. It is essentially a performance-based plan that identifies three stages towards peace and outlines obligations that both Palestinians and Israelis need to perform to contribute. The end result being "an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors."
However, the news wires (via Salon.com) report today that, "Israel throws Mideast 'road map' in doubt" which reports that Israel has announced "the Palestinians must drop their demand for Arab refugees' 'right of return' to Israel if negotiations are to proceed." The "right of return" is a key point of Palestinian policy which involves 4 million Arabs who were displaced during Israel's creation. I'm not sure if Israel is completely against negotiations involving the displaced Palestinians or if they're looking for concessions on the Palestinian stance. The article implies a hard line by Israel.
Until I look further into these new events, I'm not sure what to think.
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