From the New York Review of Books, a long article, worth a complete read, by Henry Seigman, former head of the American Jewish Congress. A longer analysis is at Tikun Olam.
"Sharon will have the opportunity to disprove his critics' accusation that he has shamelessly used Arafat and the "no partner" argument as a pretext to continue Israel's annexation of the West Bank. He can do so by ending unilateral measures and resuming negotiations with a new Palestinian leadership based on an unconditional acceptance of the road map, i.e., without the fourteen crippling reservations adopted by his cabinet on May 27, 2003, which emptied Israel's acceptance of the road map of all meaning.
The road map requires the Palestinian Authority to make good-faith efforts to halt the violence by consolidating its security forces and demobilizing the militias and terrorist groups.
This will not happen overnight, and to succeed, Israel will have to support a new leadership by ending settlement activity, removing checkpoints, and gradually withdrawing the IDF to pre-intifada positions. If Sharon again insists that none of this will happen until all violence has ceased and Jeffersonian democracy has been brought to Gaza and the West Bank, then we will know he is up to his old tricks and has no intention of ever engaging Palestinians in political negotiations...."
From Haaretz:
"The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior adviser Dov Weisglass has told Haaretz.
"And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."
So, this might be why the Palestinians don't trust Sharon, and the US shouldn't.
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