Road Map for Peace Likely to Be Approved

While bloodshed has continued between Israel and Palestine for the past 33 months, some hope in ending the violence is now emerging.

A ‘road map’ which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon submitted to his cabinet on May 25 (local time) is expected to get approval. It is almost certain that U.S. President George W. Bush will convene a summit meeting in Egypt on June 4 and discuss peaceful resolutions with leaders of Israel and Palestine.

The far-right National Religious Party which has a few cabinet seats, opposes the peace plan as proposed by the U.S. and U.N., but most cabinet ministers in the ruling Likud party are in support.

Prime Minister Sharon called cabinet ministers in an attempt to persuade them on May 24 to accept the proposal, and told them if the road map does not get the approval, the relationship between Israel the U.S. could face a crisis, local media were quoted as saying on the BBC.

Some Israeli cabinet ministers claimed that the road map is more beneficiary to Palestine than to Israel and want to modify it, but U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell sternly rejected their demands.

Once the road map gets the approval from the Israeli cabinet, President Bush will convene a summit meeting on May 4 at a resort city in Egypt to discuss peaceful resolutions with Prime Minister Sharon, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas. President Bush has been avoiding involvement in the dispute between Palestine and Israel.

“Intervening in the dispute between Palestine and Israel is a foolish and unproductive thing to do,” Bush said soon after his inauguration as president. The summit indicates a dramatic change in Bush’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the BBC reported.

About 10 officers will be dispatched to the Middle East before the summit meeting to adjust details of executing the road map for both sides, the BBC added. The officers will temporarily stay in Jerusalem and work as arbitrators in executing the road map step-by-step which aims to create a Palestinian state in 2005, Colin Powell explained.

The largest Palestinian militant group Hamas officially announced its willingness for a temporary cease fire for the first time since its establishment in 1987. According to the Israeli daily newspaper, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, the leader of Hammas who represents hard-liners in Hammas said to Prime Minister Abbas that “Hammas is ready to stop attacking Israeli civilians if Israel stops attacking Palestinian civilians.”

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com