U.S. can break political impasse, Israeli col. says

TORONTO — The current political impasse between Israel and the mainstream Palestinian leadership won’t be broken unless the United States intervenes and presents its own peace proposals, a retired Israeli army colonel said last week.

Shaul Arieli

“I don’t believe the gaps can be breached unless the United States becomes involved,” Shaul Arieli, a former commander of the Israel Defence Forces’ Northern Brigade in the Gaza Strip, told a Temple Sinai forum sponsored by Canadian Friends of Peace Now.

Arieli said that U.S. proposals should resemble the Arab League plan, which was first presented in 2002 and then resubmitted two years ago.

Under the Arab plan, Israel would pull out of territories captured in the Six Day War in exchange for recognition from, and full normalization with, Arab League members.

As part of the plan, the Palestinian refugee problem would be resolved by mutual consent.

Arieli is a member of Israel’s Council for Peace and Security, a non-partisan group that considers peace a necessary component of Israel’s national security.

In a critique of Israel’s present government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Arieli suggested that it prefers the status quo to settling the  long-running dispute with the Palestinians through a two-state solution.

Nor is Netanyahu particularly interested in coming to terms with Syria, he added. “Israel is in no hurry to negotiate with Syria.”

According to Arieli, the gaps that separate Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, are greater than those that existed between Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, and his Palestinian counterpart.

Charging that Netanyahu is exploiting the threat posed by Iran’s budding nuclear program to keep the West Bank in Israeli hands, Arieli also noted that he is using the Fatah-Hamas split to claim that Israel has no Palestinian negotiating partner.

In outlining the parameters of a final status peace agreement, Arieli cited several points.

• Israel should withdraw to its pre-1967 borders and a demilitarized Palestinian state should be established.

• There should be territorial swaps on a one-to-one ratio.

• Jerusalem should be divided and serve as the capital of both states.

• Palestinian refugees should be resettled in the new Palestinian state.

• The Palestinians should agree to a complete cessation of terrorism and violence.

In a survey of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, Arieli said that 475,000 Israelis live there at present. The figure includes eastern Jerusalem, he noted.

Arieli said that 70 per cent of Jewish settlers live on one per cent of the land in the West Bank.

Israel’s separation barrier, as envisioned by former prime minister Ariel Sharon, was to have cut into 17 per cent of the West Bank, he said. But due to U.S. and international pressure, and Israeli Supreme Court rulings, Sharon changed the route of the fence to include only five per cent of the West Bank.

Olmert increased the proportion to eight per cent, he added.

Arieli believes that Israel will eventually retain 3.5 per cent of the West Bank, with 77 per cent of the settlers, in an accord with the Palestinians.