Editorial
Middle East in a shambles
Implement the roadmap
With in a space of a month, two senior leaders of the Hamas were made the victims of targeted killing by the occupation Israeli forces. Perhaps the next on the list is Yasser Arafat. Such extra-judicial killings, carried out with impunity, are not only a grave breach of international law and subject to international criminal prosecution, it also exhibits Israel's pathological apathy towards a durable peace in the Middle East.The road to peace has been made even more difficult by the latest Sharon plan, which, insofar as it relates to the Gaza, stipulates, among other things, that Israel will withdraw from the Gaza Strip, including all the existing Israeli settlements, and will re-deploy in territory outside of the strip. Insofar as it relates to the West Bank, Israel will evacuate the settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sanur, and all permanent military installations in this area. What in effect it means that in exchange for vacating the Gaza Strip Israel will retain its occupation of the West Bank. A brief look at the map gives away the Israeli motivations. New Israeli force deployment will hem in the West Bank. It is also not clear how vacation of some of the settlements in northern West Bank will ensure 'continuous Palestinian territory in the area of the northern West Bank' as envisaged under the Sharon plan. The illegal occupation has been sanctified by US endorsement of the Sharon proposals. US has also endorsed Israeli rejection of the right of millions of Palestinian refugees from Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and their descendants to return to their lands in what is now Israel. President Bush's statement in support of the Sharon plan absolves Israel of the responsibility of fulfilling Security Council Resolution 242 that calls for the vacation of all territories occupied by Israel during the 1967 War. We would like to restate most strongly that, the only way to end the current cycle of violence is through implementing the roadmap outlined by the diplomatic Quartet of the UN, European Union, Russian Federation and United States. An Israeli withdrawal from Gaza must be part of the peace plan and not an alternative to it.
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