THE DANGERS OF THE ANNAPOLIS CONFERENCE

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Letter from Ruth Matar (Women in Green) Jerusalem
Sunday, November 25, 2007

 
Dear Friends,
 
In the Jerusalem Post of November 22nd, there was an article by Shmuel Katz entitled: “The Looming Danger of Annapolis”. (Shmuel Katz is the man who co-founded the Herut Party- the forerunner of Likud- with Menachem Begin, and was a member of the first Knesset).
           
Shmuel Katz writes in his article: “The Jewish state is in greater danger than any time since the 1948 War of Independence. The danger stems not from current Arab violence, nor the threat of future violence. It lies in the convocation of the Annapolis conference conceived and promoted with almost frenetic enthusiasm by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice…”
 
“The PLO and delegates from Arab states, together with representatives from the UN and the European Union- will presumably turn up at the conference. Whoever they are, an analysis of their respective outlooks shows that all the delegates are committed to THE DIMINUTION OF ISRAEL, AND SOME, FRANKLY, HER CONSEQUENT EXTINCTION…”
 
The Arab League, which decides the framework and makes overall decisions, decreed that the Arab countries should attend the Annapolis conference at the high level of foreign minister. Thus more than 40 countries in all are sending their foreign ministers to Annapolis.
 
I have collected some items from the Israeli media so that you can get a clearer picture of what, unfortunately, might happen at the conference, which starts in Washington D.C. tomorrow, Monday, November 26, and which continues in Annapolis on Tuesday, November 27th.

* * *

 
CHOOSE YOUR DEMONSTRATION!
The Schedule of the Annapolis “peace conference”
 
MONDAY, November 26
10:50: Bilateral meeting between President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minisetr Livni at White House
14:20: Bilateral meeting between Vice President Cheney and Prime Minister Olmert at White House
15:20: Bilateral meeting between Vice President Cheney and Defense Minister Barak at White House
17:05: Bilateral meeting between Vice President Cheney and Foreign Minister Livni
18:00: Reception and dinner at State Department
 
TUESDAY, November 27
09:30: Arrival at US Naval Academy
09:50: Trilateral meeting between President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas
11:00: Remarks at Memorial Hall lunch
12:45: Meeting with Maryland Gov. O’Malley at location TBD
16:30: Bilateral meeting between Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Defense Minister Barak at Pentagon
 
WEDNESDAY, November 28
13:10: Bilateral meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert

* * *

 
Dear Friends: Study this Annapolis “peace conference” schedule very carefully. Question yourselves: Why are the Monday meetings at the White House and the State Department, (Israel’s long-time enemy), only between American and Israeli officials? Why is the Tuesday meeting at the US Naval Academy the ONLY trilateral meeting between President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas?
 
I get the very uncomfortable feeling that the outcome of the conference has already been discussed and decided between President Bush and the Arabs, and is a fait accompli. [Dictionary definition of “fait accompli”: an action which is completed before those affected by it are in a position to query or reverse it].
All that now remains is to inform the victim of his fate!
 
In other words, is the fix already in?

* * *

 
From Haaretz, November 25, 2007
First Annapolis Victory
The Arab foreign ministers
By Zvi Bar’el
 
A phone call by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to her Saudi counterpart, Saud al-Faisal, apparently persuaded the Arab foreign ministers to attend Annapolis. The key was her promise that the Golan Heights would be on the agenda. Damascus is still refusing to commit, but that is no longer important: even if Syria stays away, it will now be violating the Arab consensus, which has given its imprimatur to Annapolis.
 
The Arab states’ agreement to send their foreign ministers is the first American success of the much-criticized conference. But this was not merely a gesture to USA President George Bush; it reflects a two pronged Arab strategy. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan object to Bush’s division of the Middle East into moderate and radical states; they are also no longer willing to leave the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Washington and Jerusalem.
 
Thus the main question at last week’s meeting of Arab foreign ministers was what would they gain or lose, by sending high level representatives to Annapolis. The minus side was the risk of granting high-profile Arab support to a failed conference, as well as a seal of approval to the internal Palestinian split between Fatah and Hamas. On the plus side, argued supporters of attending, their presence would help ensure that any Israeli-Palestinian agreement conforms to the Arab peace initiative, which Bush cited in his speech announcing the conference.
 
Even more important, however, the Arab states needed to ensure that Syria was included, because they- and especially Saudi Arabia- need Syrian help to resolve the crisis in Lebanon. As a bonus, Syria’s inclusion helps blur the American distinction between moderate and radical states; it also creates a linkage between the Palestinian and Syrian tracks.
 
Bush and Rice scored a victory with the Arab foreign ministers’ agreement to attend. The question is whether they will follow this with further diplomatic action. The US will have trouble mobilizing Arab support of its interests in the future- not only on the Israeli-Palestinian front.

* * *

 
From the Jerusalem Post, November 25, 2007
The Great American Delusion
By Ephraim Inbar, Professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University, and the Director of the Begin-Sadat BESA (Center for Strategic Studies)
 
The US planned Annapolis conference, whose goals are to facilitate the creation of a democratic Palestinian state- free of corruption and militias- that will live peacefully alongside Israel is doomed to fall. The American initiative rests on several unfounded premises.
 
The first is that Palestinian society can be reformed by outsiders. Middle-Eastern societies have already proven their resistance to attempts by Western powers to change their old ways of doing business. It is naïve to believe that political and social dynamics rooted in centuries-old traditions can be easily manipulated by well-intentioned, but presumptuous Westerners. President George W. Bush should have learned this lesson from his experience in Iraq.

* * *

 
ARE SAUDI ARABIA AND LIBYA REALLY FRIENDS OF THE UNITES STATES?
 
From IMRA, November 23rd 
imra@netvision.net.il
 
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60% of foreign fighters who entered Iraq in the past year to participate in the insurgency, the New York Times reported Thursday. [For ‘insurgent’, read ‘terrorist’.]. US forces found documents and computers with information on the foreign fighters in a September raid on a tent camp near the town of Sinjar, close to the Syrian border, the Times said, citing senior US military officials. The target of the raid was an insurgent cell believed to be responsible for smuggling the vast majority of foreign fighters into Iraq, the daily reported. The documents included biographical sketches listing the hometowns of more than 700 fighters who were brought into Iraq since August 2006. Saudi Arabia is a longtime US ally in the region, while the United States restored diplomatic relations with Libya and removed it from its list of state sponsors of terrorism last year.

* * *

 
From the Herald Tribune, November 24-25
Talks get wide backing by Arabs; Syria unsure
By Mona el-Naggar and Isabel Kershner
 
At least 15 Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, said Friday that they would send a cabinet minister to the American-sponsored Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Syria said it would not go unless its dispute over the Golan Heights was on the agenda.

* * *

 
From the Jerusalem Post, November 23, 2007
American Folly
By Caroline Glick
 
Even though the summit at Annapolis weakens the US’s position vis-a-vi Iran, it might still make sense for Bush and Rice to support Palestinian statehood if doing so enhanced public support for the administration. But the opposite is occurring. Bush’s and Rice’s seeming obsession with Palestinian statehood is being criticized from all sides of the isle.
 
Critics on the left, like New York Time columnist Thomas Friedman and former Clinton negotiator and Palestinian apologist, Robert Malley, have expressed mystification at the administration’s insistent advance of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians when there is no chance that those negotiations will bring peace. So too, over the past few weeks, four Republican presidential candidates- RUDY GIULIANI, MITT ROMNEY, JOHN MCCAIN AND FRED THOMPSON- have criticized Bush’s and Rice’s Palestinian policies generally and the convening of the conference in Annapolis in particular.
 

* * *

 
To make us all feel better, I want to quote from an e-mail sent to me by a very good friend, Victor Passenheim:
 
“I have this dream, really it’s a fantasy, in which the Israeli Government shows up at Annapolis and promptly, before the beginning of the “negotiations”, with all cameras rolling, they give the Arabs and the US the middle finger and declare, in no uncertain terms: ‘Don’t even think of pressuring us ever again in giving away any of our God-given, blood-bought, sovereign land!’
Then they get up and leave at once, back home to Israel.”
 
Dear Victor,
 
May God allow your dream to come true! All of us share in your dream!
 
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
 
Ruth Matar


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