Background: No Reference to Israel's 14 Reservations=Pal State in Gaza
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 14 April 2004

Both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President George Bush reiterate their
commitment to the Roadmap in their statements and exchange of letters in
Washington today. President Bush's remarks, however, in no way indicate that
he accepts Israel "14 Reservations" regarding the Roadmap.

Therefore:

The Palestinians will not be obligated to actually successfully complete any
operation against the terror infrastructure - just "declare" and "begin"
operations = photo opportunities.

Neither Israel nor the United States but instead "the consensus judgment of
the Quartet" will determine if the time has come to establish a sovereign
Palestinian state in the evacuated areas - this while the Quartet will not
even consider the actual performance of the Palestinians but instead how
their performance compares to Israel's performance ("taking into account
performance of both parties").

The establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the evacuated areas
is not even subject to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but instead only
"Israeli-Palestinian engagement". An Israeli hand over of the Gaza Strip
would qualify as "Israeli-Palestinian engagement"

In sharp contrast to the Phase II state described in Israel's 14
Reservations, the Palestinian state in the evacuated area would be a
sovereign state in all respects. "Quartet members promote international
recognition of Palestinian state, including possible UN membership."

Once there is a sovereign Palestinian state in the evacuated areas Israel
will effectively lose control on movement between the evacuated area and the
outside world: a necessary condition in the view of the Israeli defense
establishment embraced by Prime Minister Sharon, Defense Minister Mofaz and
other retreat advocates.

Below are excerpts from the two documents. It is noteworthy that while the
Knesset website gives a prominent position to Hebrew translations of both
documents, the Israeli Foreign Ministry features the Roadmap but buries the
14 Reservations as a URL to the Haaretz website on a secondary page with the
notation that it is "unofficial". To this day the Prime Minister's Office
has refused to officially release what may potentially be the most critical
Israeli document in this generation.

Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/A+Performance-Ba
sed+Roadmap+to+a+Permanent+Two-Sta.htm

Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 30, 2003
A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The following is a performance-based and goal-driven roadmap, with clear
phases, timelines, target dates, and benchmarks aiming at progress through
reciprocal steps by the two parties in the political, security, economic,
humanitarian, and institution-building fields, under the auspices of the
Quartet [the United States, European Union, United Nations, and Russia]. .

The Quartet will meet regularly at senior levels to evaluate the parties'
performance on implementation of the plan. In each phase, the parties are
expected to perform their obligations in parallel, unless otherwise
indicated.

Phase I: Ending Terror And Violence, Normalizing Palestinian Life, and
Building Palestinian Institutions -- Present to May 2003
.
Security

Palestinians declare .

Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins
sustained, targeted, and effective operations .

Settlements

GOI immediately dismantles settlement outposts erected since March 2001.

Consistent with the Mitchell Report, GOI freezes all settlement activity
(including natural growth of settlements).

Phase II: Transition -- June 2003-December 2003

In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an
independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of
sovereignty, based on the new constitution, as a way station to a permanent
status settlement. As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the
Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror.

Progress into Phase II will be based upon the consensus judgment of the
Quartet of whether conditions are appropriate to proceed, taking into
account performance of both parties. .

Creation of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders
through a process of Israeli-Palestinian engagement launched by the
international conference. ...

Quartet members promote international recognition of Palestinian state,
including possible UN membership.

Phase III: Permanent Status Agreement and End of the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict -- 2004 - 2005

. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at a permanent status agreement in
2005.

Israel's road map reservations
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=297230

4. The Monitoring mechanism will be under American management.Substantive
decisions will remain in the hands of both parties.

5. The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined
through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The
provisional state will have provisional borders and certain aspects of
sovereignty, be fully demilitarized with no military forces, but only with
police and internal security forces of limited scope and armaments, be
without the authority to undertake defense alliances or military
cooperation, and Israeli control over the entry and exit of all persons and
cargo, as well as of its air space and electromagnetic spectrum.

6. In connection to both the introductory statements and the final
settlement, declared references must be made to Israel's right to exist as a
Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian
refugees to the State of Israel.

.
10. The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi
Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based
upon the road map will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity
therefrom. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338,
and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a
permanent settlement.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il