Jews Down Under An online magazine for Australian Jews
Written by David Singer.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has missed his own deadline of 31 January by not releasing his eagerly anticipated framework agreement designed to help end the 130 years old Jewish-Arab conflict. It will now be released by 21 February according to US Envoy Martin Indyk.
Whilst speculation is rife as to its contents – it appears certain that there will be one crucial omission – that any Palestinian State created must be democratic – which could doom any further negotiations.
A democratic Palestinian state finds its genesis in the 2003 Bush Roadmap – the foundation which underpins the current negotiations. The Roadmap stated:
“A two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved … through Israel’s readiness to do what is necessary for a democratic Palestinian state to be established,
“A settlement, negotiated between the parties, will result in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbours.”
The full text of the Roadmap was presented to Palestinian and Israeli leaders by the Quartet mediators – the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia – indicating strong international support for a democratic Palestinian State as the end game to success.
By 27 November 2007 – when negotiations under the Bush Road Map were non-existent – President Bush assembled the following star-studded list representing their designated countries and organisations to announce that negotiations were set to commence in December:
| Description | Delegation | Title of Head of Delegation | Name |
| Parties | Israel | Prime Minister | Ehud Olmert |
| Palestinian Authority | President | Mahmud Abbas | |
| Quartet | United States | President | George W. Bush |
| EU Commission | Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy | Benita Ferrero-Waldner | |
| EU High Rep | High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union | Javier Solana | |
| EU President (Portugal) | Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs | Luis Amado | |
| Russia | Minister for Foreign Affairs | Sergey V. Lavrov | |
| UNSYG | Secretary General | Ban Ki-moon | |
| Quartet Representative | Middle East Envoy | Tony Blair | |
| Arab League Follow-up Committee | Algeria | Minister of State for Foreign Affairs | Mourad Medelci |
| Bahrain | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa | |
| Egypt | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Ahmed Aboul Gheit | |
| Jordan | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Salaheddin Al-Bashir | |
| Lebanon | Minister of Culture | Tarek Mitri | |
| Morocco | Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation | Taieb Fassi Fihri | |
| Qatar | Minister of State for Foreign Affairs | Ahmed bin Abdulla Al-Mahmoud | |
| Saudi Arabia | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Saud Al-Faisal | |
| Sudan | Ambassador | John Ukec | |
| Syria | Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs | Fayssal Mekdad | |
| Tunisia | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Abdelwahab Abdallah | |
| Yemen | Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Expatriate Affairs | Abu Bakr al-Qirbi | |
| Arab League SYG | Secretary General | Amre Moussa | |
| G-8, P-5 | Canada | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Maxime Bernier |
| China | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Yang Jiechi | |
| France | Minister of Foreign and European Affairs | Bernard Kouchner | |
| Germany | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Frank-Walter Steinmeier | |
| Italy | Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs | Massimo D’Alema | |
| Japan | Special Envoy for the Middle East | Tatsuo Arima | |
| United Kingdom | Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | David Miliband | |
| Others | AustriaBrazil | Minister of Foreign AffairsMinister of State for External Relations | Ursula PlassnikCelso Luiz Nunes Amorim |
| Denmark | Minister for Foreign Affairs | Per Stig Moeller | |
| Greece | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Dora Bakoyannis | |
| India | Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences | Shri Kapil Sibal | |
| Indonesia | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Noer Hassan Wirajuda | |
| Malaysia | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Syed Hamid bin Syed Jaafar Albar | |
| Mauritania | Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation | Mohamed Saleck Ould Mohamed Lemine | |
| Mexico | Under Secretary | Lourdes Aranda | |
| Netherlands | Minister for European Affairs | Frans Timmermans | |
| Norway | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Jonas Gahr Store | |
| OIC | Secretary General | Ekemelddin Ihsanoglu | |
| Oman | Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs | Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdulla | |
| Pakistan | Foreign Secretary | Riaz Mohammad Khan | |
| Poland | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Radoslaw Sikorski | |
| Senegal | Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs | Cheikh Tidiane Gadio | |
| Slovenia | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Dimitrij Rupel | |
| South Africa | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma | |
| Spain | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Miguel Angel Moratinos | |
| Sweden | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Carl Bildt | |
| Turkey | Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief EU Negotiator | Ali Babacan | |
| United Arab Emirates | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahayan | |
| Vatican (Holy See) | Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Special Envoy | Pietro Parolin | |
| Observers | IMF | Managing Director | Dominique Strauss-Kahn |
| World Bank | President | Robert Zoellick |
They all heard President Bush state the following:
“We meet to lay the foundation for the establishment of a new nation — a democratic Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and security…
… Today, Palestinians and Israelis each understand that helping the other to realize their aspirations is key to realizing their own aspirations — and both require an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state…
No democratic State – no solution.
By 19 May 2011 Bush’s successor – President Obama – had started to vacillate:
“The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.”
If Obama and the Annapolis participants have conveniently forgotten that creating a “democratic Palestinian State” is fundamental to the conflict being ended – then they only have themselves to blame for the chaos and violence that will surely follow should Israel refuse to negotiate within a Kerry framework agreement that omits any reference to a democratic Palestinian State.
International treachery and duplicity would surely have triumphed over international diploma
Cross posted from Daphne Anson
The indispensable condition for peace, and for any more Arabs to have yet another state is that its putative leaders and people proclaim to the world that they accept that the Jewish Nation has inalienable and legitimate rights to its sovereign nation-state in The Land of Israel.
Unless they do this, no number of treaties, agreements, road maps or other pieces of paper will bring true peace.
The overwhelming evidence is that the Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians” are nowhere near the point of accepting that condition no matter how much territory Israel donates to them.
Leon
You are 100% spot on.
I think it is time to rename the “two-state solution” the “Jewish State – Democratic Palestine State solution” – because that is the only two-state solution envisaged by the Roadmap and the Annapolis Conference.
If Obama and Kerry don’t make this abundantly clear to Israel and the PLO in Kerry’s framework agreement – then it will assuredly end up in the garbage tin.
The time for tiptoeing through the tulips has come to an end.