RAMALLAH, West Bank, 4 January 2007 — Israeli government sources yesterday said that the Jewish state is seeking to reach an understanding with the US administration that would safeguard Israel’s security interests in a future final-status agreement with the Palestinians and during current negotiations.
The sources also said Israel is seeking President George W. Bush’s support for its security demands so that such understandings can serve as a basis for the work of the American special security envoy Gen. James Jones, who has been tasked with formulating the security arrangements for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
According to the sources, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to discuss these security issues with Bush during the president’s visit here next week. At the heart of Israel’s demands is that it remains free to act against Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank for as long as negotiations last, and that demilitarization arrangements place limitations on the future Palestinian state.
The Israeli daily Haaretz said that discussions with US officials on this issue began even before the Annapolis summit, during the visit of the Israeli delegation to Washington. Olmert on Wednesday called a meeting ahead of the Bush visit with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Barak presented the security demands in detail and Livni discussed the importance of demilitarizing the areas that Israel would evacuate in the future.
Israel wants to maintain effective military superiority in the Palestinian territories during the talks, and ensure that it has the freedom to act against armed Palestinian organizations in Gaza Strip. Israel would like the US to agree to a number of limitations on the future Palestinian state’s sovereignty.
Israel wants Palestine to be completely demilitarized, and for Israel to be able to fly over Palestinian airspace. Border crossings would be monitored by Israel in such a way that the symbols of Palestinian sovereignty would not be compromised, but Israel would know who was coming and going.
Israel is to propose the deployment of an international force in the West Bank and along the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, and would ask that a permanent Israeli forces presence remain for an extended period in the Jordan Valley.
According to Israel’s plan, a small Israeli force would be stationed in the Jordan Valley as a “tripwire force” that would act as a deterrent. Israel would also demand Palestinian agreement that in the case of an emergency Israel could deploy in essential areas of the West Bank to thwart a threat of invasion from the East.
Such a deployment would only take place under extreme circumstances, but including it in the agreement would ensure that the Palestinians would not object if the time came when it was needed. Under ordinary circumstances the West Bank would be completely demilitarized, with only internal Palestinian security forces on duty.
During the US-backed peace conference held in Annapolis last month, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to resume talks on final-status issues: final borders, refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and the settlements.
Negotiators from Israel and the PA have met twice since the Annapolis conference but yielded little progress due to Israeli plans to construct new housing units in the settlements of West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In another development, senior Israeli officials yesterday demanded Egypt to explain why Palestinian pilgrims were allowed to return to Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing without going through security inspections, as was agreed between Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The daily Yediot Ahronot quoted the official saying that “We’re expecting to hear an explanation from Egypt.” The issue of the Palestinian pilgrims is only the latest crisis to add fuel to the flaring tensions between Israel and Egypt.
Israeli and Egyptian officials traded criticism after Livni told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last month that Egypt’s performance on the Gaza border to prevent the smuggling of arms into Gaza Strip is “awful and problematic.” Hundreds of Palestinian pilgrims made their way back into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday after being stranded on Egyptian soil for almost a week following their return from the Haj pilgrimage to Makkah, according to Palestinian sources.
The circumstances that allowed for the return of the pilgrims remain unclear, although unidentified sources in Gaza said the pilgrims did not employ force and their passage was coordinated with Egyptian authorities. Among those returning to Gaza are dozens of senior Hamas political and military figures.
Israel claims that some of the returning Palestinians raised millions of dollars for Hamas while in Saudi Arabia and Israel also suspects that some underwent military training in Iran.
