Israelis Manhandling US General and Washington is Silent

Shortly before the convening of the one day Annapolis meeting aimed at giving a push to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, last November, Condoleza Rice held a much smaller meeting in the state department. Huddling with the authors of a brand new book on negotiating an Arab Israeli peace, the US secretary of state met with former US ambassador Dan Kurtzer and Scott Lasensky. Their book Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East by Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky. Putting the book aside Rice asked the two authors to verbally tell her what was the one issue that she should focus on as she prepares for the Annapolis meeting. According to Kurtzer who gave a talk at Princeton University where he is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School, they pointed to lesson five of the ten lessons in their book.

Lesson 5 states the following "Commitments made by the parties and agreements entered into must be respected and implemented. The United States must ensure compliance through monitoring, setting standards of accountability, reporting violations fairly to the parties, and exacting consequences when commitments are broken or agreements not implemented. "
Secretary Rice seems to have accepted this particular advise and convinced President Bush to appoint a three state US general to monitor Palestinian and Israeli compliance to their own commitments. US President George W. Bush named in January Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to monitor progress that Israelis and Palestinians sides are making on the peace process known as the "road map."

In his speech at Princeton, early in April, Kertzer was pleased that their idea was picked up by the Bush Administration. However, Ambassador Kurtzer complained that Washington is not taking this issue seriously. He explained that it is not enough to send the general two days a month and expect that to count as monitoring.

Kurtzer was not the only person who felt that President Bush was not serious in wanting to hold the parties (especially Israel) accountable to their commitments. Jewish settlers in Hebron and to a lesser degree the Israeli government clearly don't seem to have taken this issue seriously. On Friday May 1, the Israeli daily published the following story:

The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported. One of the rightists is reported to have driven his jeep into the convoy accompanying General William Fraser. Subsequently, one of the vehicles in the convoy heavily collided with the jeep, according to Israel Radio. A fracas ensued between the guards and the rightists before the Americans decided to cut the visit short, Israel Radio reported.

It is amazing that a three star general appointed by the US president is physically harassed and denied to do his job by citizens of a country that America has a special relationship with. Until this writing, neither the state department nor the white house have even made a public statement about the incident. IF Washington is silent about the fact that one of its generals whose mission is to monitor the parties commitments is being pushed around by Israelis how can we ever expect this American military envoy or the US government to actually publicly point the finger at the side that is violating the agreement, especially if that side is the Israeli side?

Comments

[MagisterLudi]

Blogger failed to mention that the heavy security for the Americans is mostly necessary to protect Americans against the Palestinian terrorists.

Lucky for everyone this was a Jewish protester. Why? Because no-one was injured.

If this was a Palestinian attack there would be body parts flying everywhere. Followed by the usual video tape of some poor Palestinian mother forced to proclaim to be proud of the murder.

[Obamamo]

Nice try! We send our hard earned tax money to a Rogue country like Israel. Israeli settlers are worst than Palesrtinians.

[munimula]

"IF Washington is silent about the fact that one of its generals whose mission is to monitor the parties commitments is being pushed around by Israelis how can we ever expect this American military envoy or the US government to actually publicly point the finger at the side that is violating the agreement, especially if that side is the Israeli side?"

Well, we can't. We never were able to, and we never will be able to.

I guess that's what make our relationship with Israel "special".

[veracity]

umm... when is humanity going to address that slight problem that, at its core, the Old Tesatament is..... a handbook for genocide? The Mongols on their rampage through Central Asia, the Turks in their conquests to the gates of Vienna... the Conquistadors enslaving or killing everyone in their path.... long before these "modern" conquests, the Bible lays out how to build an army and engage on a course of "cleansing" a given territorial target of enemy tribes who live there... "cleansing" by killing all living creatures, except on ocassion women for rape, children for slaves, and animals for the wealth that they represented. Indeed, the bible tells us that Saul was doomed to lose his kingdom, and to death, for... the great sin of sparing the life of ONE enemy from the entire kingdom of the Amalakites, King Amelek. When God's own messenger Samuel ("the prophet") learned that Saul had spared the life of Amelek, Samuel flies into a rage, declares that God has irrevocably damned Saul.... then grabs a sword, and proceeds to hack the hapless prisoner to death on the spot.

[sparkandy]

Very good point. There's nothing in the Old Testament worth regarding. I don't know why it's even in the Bible. If there is any sort of religious blue print for good living, it would only be found in the New Testament.

[SamThornton]

Anyone who thinks either Israel or the United States is serious about settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just hasn't been paying attention. Sure, President Bush would like to include a line in his memoir about how he resolved the conflict, but like a lot of things on his wish list, he either doesn't want to actually do anything, or doesn't understand the problem sufficiently to deal with it.

Hopefully, Mr. Bush won't stage a coupe and cancel the Fall election. On the other hand, hope isn't a strategy.

[tompoe]

Seems Dershowitz hasn't weighed in, yet. Then again, he's never been real big on facts and objectivity and especially ethics and humanity.

[chefrasta]

Well at least he didn't get bombed and strafed as he was wounded in the water like the brave sailors of the USS LIBERTY so consider him lucky.

[S1m0n]

"Kurtzer was not the only person who felt that President Bush was not serious in wanting to hold the parties (especially Israel) accountable to their commitments."

Talk about understatements!

Is there anyone who thinks Bush is serious on this issue?

[EspressoAtNoon]

Not to mention they refused to offer security to former American President Carter to prevent assassination while he was visiting Israel.

You're either bowing down to Likud or you may as well be dead as far as they're concerned.

[ArmandAllegro]

At least he avoided the fate of Maj.Paeta Derek Hesse-von-Kruedener. A Canadian murdered by Isreal.