For the past six years, the Middle East Road Map, placed on the table of middle
east negotiations by the Bush Administration, has been on the agenda of middle
east negotiations.
The only question question has been: which Middle East Road map?
The road map of April 30, 2003, which simply established a Palestinian State in the west bank and Gaza and even in Jerusalem?
Or the May 25, 2003 version of road map adopted by the government of Israel, which placed 14 conditions for a Palestinian state to be created.
At the November 2007 middle east conference convened by the Bush Administration in Annapolis, President Bush and US Secretary Rice both emphasized that the American government insisted on Israel abiding by the April 30 wording of the road map, without any of the May 25 2003 Israeli conditions.
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials at the Annapolis conference were aghast that the Both Bush and Rice saw fit to specifically delineate their demand that Israel accept the April 30, 2003 version of the road map.
As a result, since the Annapolis conference, there has been an open rift between the United States and Israel.
The May 25 2003 Israeli government conditions for accepting the road map for a Palestinian State include:
1. The Palestinians must dismantle existing terrorist organizations and combat
incitement to violence from all Palestinian Authority media outlets.
2. Progress must follow the full implementation of the preceding phase.
3. Emergence of a new and different leadership in the Palestinian
Authority within the framework of governmental reform.
4. A monitoring mechanism will be created under American management.
5. The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined
through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
6. The Palestinian entity must declare Israel’s right to exist as a
Jewish state and waive any “right of return” for Palestinian
refugees to claim land within the sovereign State of Israel.
7. The end of the process will lead to the end of all claims and not only the
end of the conflict.
8. The future settlement will be reached through direct negotiations between the two parties.
9. Issues not to be discussed: Jewish community expansion in Judea,
Samaria and Gaza, the status of the Palestinian Authority institutions in
Jerusalem.
10. Removal of all references to UN Resolutions other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi
Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut).
11. Promotion of a reform process in the Palestinian Authority:
12. Deployment of Israeli armed forces along the September 2000 lines will be
subject to the stipulation of Article 4 (absolute quiet)
13. Subject to security conditions, Israel will work to restore Palestinian
life to normal.
14. Arab states will assist in condemnation and cessation of terrorist activity

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleInside I’LAM – Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel
Next articleFirst Palestinian Authority Militray Operation Deemed a Failure
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR