From Occupied Palestine

Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush's letters in full
ARIEL SHARON and GEORGE W BUSH
19 April 2004

Text of George W. Bush's letter to Ariel Sharon

His Excellency
Ariel Sharon
Prime Minister of Israel

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Thank you for your letter setting out your disengagement plan.

The United States remains hopeful and determined to find a way forward toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. I remain committed to my June 24, 2002 vision of two states living side by side in peace and security as the key to peace, and to the road map as the route to get there.

Sharon's skin and Bush's spots
URI AVNERY
Gush Shalom, 17 April 2004

Question: Is the "Unilateral Disengagement" plan, which was so dramatically endorsed this week by President Bush, a bluff?

Answer: Yes and No. If Ariel Sharon can avoid implementing it, he certainly will. He will implement it only if he has no alternative. The written plan says that it will be implemented "by the end of 2005" – and by then the situation in this country and in the Middle East as a whole may be changed beyond recognition.

Bush revives the spirit of Balfour
DAVID HIRST
Guardian, 16 April 2004

It was an Israeli commentator who likened George Bush's statement on Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan" to Britain's 1917 Balfour Declaration, the founding charter of what became the state of Israel; but the sentiment is abundantly shared by every Palestinian.

By endorsing Ariel Sharon's plan George Bush has legitimised terrorism
ROBERT FISK
Independent, 16 April 2004

So President George Bush tears up the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and that's okay. Israeli settlements for Jews and Jews only on the West Bank. That's okay. Taking land from Palestinians who have owned that land for generations, that's okay. UN Security Council Resolution 242 says that land cannot be acquired by war. Forget it. That's okay.

Rogue states embrace the Bush-Sharon press conference
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Znet, 15 April 2004

Talking Points

OCCUPIED ARAB JERUSALEM

Bush's embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan to annex six major West Bank settlement blocs and reject the internationally-recognized Palestinian right of return as a quid pro quo for Sharon's pull-out from most Gaza settlements represents a major defeat for Palestinian human rights and international law, and a huge consolidation of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. While U.S. policy has, since 1967, tacitly accepted Israel's illegal settlements and done nothing to even encourage the end of the occupation, Bush's position represents a sharp break with longstanding precedent of supporting a negotiated settlement and even more sharply with Bush's own (however disingenuous) claim to support a two-state solution.

Sharon seeks US backing to go it alone
CHRIS McGREAL
Guardian, 12 April 2004

Jerusalem -- The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, flies to Washington today, where he expects President George Bush to back his plan to unilaterally draw the frontiers of an emasculated Palestinian state, a move which could redefine the conflict for a generation or more.

Blair to Sharon: I will act to gather international support for pullout
ALUF BENN and MAZAL MUALEM
Ha'aretz, 7 April 2004

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday that he would work toward enlisting international support for the disengagement plan, Sharon's office said.

U.S. vetoes UN resolution censuring Israel for Yassin killing
SHLOMO SHAMIR
Ha'aretz, 25 March 2004

The United States on Thursday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution which called for a condemnation of Israel for the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin.

Yassin was targeted on Monday in an Israeli helicopter missile strike outside a mosque in Gaza.

The man who knew too much
ROBERT FISK
Independent, 23 March 2004

He was drugged, kidnapped and locked up for 18 years after revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to the world. Next month Mordechai Vanunu is finally set to be released, but just how much freedom will he be allowed? Robert Fisk reports

Any Israeli who bought the 16 February edition of the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth would have believed that a truly wicked man was about to be released from Ashkelon prison. Each time a suicide bomber blew himself up, the prisoner would celebrate. Worse still, said the paper, the inmate - once a keeper of Israel's nuclear secrets - wants to endanger his country further after his release. "He told me," a former prisoner was quoted as saying, "that he has additional material and that he will reveal secrets..."

The life and unexplained death of a Palestinian militant
ROBERT FISK
Independent, 11 March 2004

Mohamed Aboul Abbas, the 'Achille Lauro' planner, said he never intended passengers to be held hostage or anyone to be killed, and apologized for it. The US and Israel allowed him back to Gaza. So why was he in a US prison in Iraq?

When 55-year-old Mohamed Aboul Abbas died mysteriously in a US prison camp in Iraq on Tuesday, nobody bothered to call his family.