Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

I’ll be monitoring the upcoming Annapolis Conference closely, and might be participating in some of the peripheral events myself. In the meantime, there have been some early leaks of proposals in play at the conference (see Carl in Jerusalem and the links therein).

On Thursday, Haaretz leaked a draft of the ‘joint declaration’ between Israel and the ‘Palestinians’ that’s still being worked on this evening. The draft had three proposals for just about every paragraph: US, Israel and ‘Palestinians.’ In one paragraph the US proposed:

The parties commit to immediate and parallel implementation of the Roadmap.

The parties agree to form an American, Palestinian and Israeli committee to follow up on the immediate implementation of the Roadmap.

The parties commit themselves to continue the implementation of the ongoing obligations of the Roadmap until they reach a peace treaty.

The US will monitor and judge the fulfillment of the commitments of both sides of the Roadmap.

Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the Roadmap, as judged by the US.

Not so sure about that. He continues:

Over the weekend, Caroline Glick slammed the highlighted provision:

As the leaked draft document shows, the Americans have sided with the Palestinians against Israel. Specifically, the Americans have taken for themselves the sole right to judge whether or not the Palestinians and the Israelis are abiding by their commitments and whether and at what pace the negotiations will proceed.

But the Americans have shown themselves to be unworthy of Israel’s trust. By refusing to acknowledge Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party’s direct involvement in terrorism and indeed the direct involvement of his official Fatah “security forces” in terrorism, the Americans have shown that their benchmarks for Palestinian compliance with their commitments to Israel are not necessarily based on the reality on the ground. Then too, the US demands for wide-ranging Israeli security concessions to the Palestinians even before the “peace” conference at Annapolis have shown that Israel’s security is of little concern to the State Department.

If I were Carl, though, I wouldn’t believe every leak you see. Annapolis is a bold move by President Bush and Secretary Rice, and I believe that they are sincere in their goals. Remember, it is a Roadmap to Peace, not a shortcut.