(Untitled)

[evildave]

Can somebody explain this to me?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/3/92611/69698So, Arab states are, of course, upset with Israel for occupying the Gaza strip. Sharon has a referendum on his plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza strip. The referendum fails, and the plan itself is condemned by Arab and European states

Comments

[esk]

i'm not really up on the whole thing, but from this article (couple weeks old) it sounds like the palestinians are pissed that sharon put together the proposal without going through any negotiations with the opposing side -- there's some pretty passive-aggressive wording in the plan itself, even: "Israel has come to the conclusion that at present, there is no Palestinian partner with whom it is possible to make progress on a bilateral agreement."

[evildave]

Ah, that article had a lot of good details that got dropped from the later articles. Thanks!

So, essentially, the Israelis decided that they'd pull out of Gaza, but they also unilaterally decided that this was in exchange for permanently keeping certain other territory, and leaving the barrier intact, etc, etc. This was my favorite part:
[The plan] says Israel would leave evacuated settlements intact and proposes an international body be established to take possession of the settlements and appraise their value, facilitating a transfer to Palestinians under which Israel could be reimbursed for costs.
So... Israel is pulling back, admitting the land that they took should belong to the Palestinians, and is allowing them to buy it back. Weird.

[ignignokt]

'President Bush took a huge diplomatic gamble two weeks ago when he forcefully embraced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and handed Israel key concessions on a final peace deal. The backlash in Arab and European countries was especially intense, but administration officials argued Sharon's plan carried the seeds of a breakthrough in the stalled peace process.'

I think the backlash might refer to the 'key concessions', whatever they were.