Sharm deal is no long-term solution

By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Thursday 10 February 2005, 12:31 Makka Time, 9:31 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D37DB4CA-9BE8-42B4-9F4B-320D05B1B6A7.htm

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas have
agreed to a ceasefire, but one commentator sees the deal merely as a time out
for
two exhausted societies.

"Both sides need a rest. The Palestinians need to recover a semblance of normal
life, and the Israelis need to revive their economy, which was hard hit by the
near destruction of the vital tourism industry," Hani al-Masri told
Aljazeera.net.

Al-Masri writes a regular column in the Ram Allah-based daily Al-Ayyam.

The verbal agreement stipulates a mutual cessation of hostilities, including
resistance attacks by Palestinian fighters against Israelis and military
incursions into Palestinian towns and villages by the Israeli occupation army.

More than 3800 Palestinians and about 1000 Israelis have lost their lives in the
past 52 months of violence.

Unenthusiastic

Sharon has also promised a set of largely undefined "goodwill measures" that
ostensibly will alleviate the plight of more than 3.5 million Palestinians.

"The summit may have succeeded in stopping the bloodshed for the time being, but
it has by no means removed the causes and factors that would make the resumption
of violence inevitable"

Hani al-Masri, columnist for the Ram Allah-based Al-Ayyam

Al-Masri believes the public in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories
have accepted the agreement but not embraced it enthusiastically.

But the summit is unlikely to lead to far-reaching progress towards the
resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and al-Masri said the summit has
only "temporary importance".

"The summit may have succeeded in stopping the bloodshed for the time being, but
it has by no means removed the causes and factors that would make the resumption
of violence inevitable.

"I am not even talking about Jerusalem and the refugees, but lesser but real
problems such as daily Israeli repression, land confiscation and the building of
the apartheid wall," he said, referring to the illegal separation wall Israel is
building in the West Bank.

Miles to go

The commentator said the summit deal was just a small step.

"They agreed to travel only 10 miles in a 1000-mile journey. This gives us some
optimism corresponding to this small distance, while uncertainty continues to
hover over the remaining 990 miles which both sides have to travel before there
can be peace," he said.


Meanwhile, resistance group Hamas has criticised the summit agreement, arguing
that it "left things as they are", referring to Israeli repression against the
Palestinians.

Hamas' spokesman in the West Bank, Hasan Yusuf, told Aljazeera.net on Tuesday
that Palestinians were unlikely to feel a qualitative improvement in their daily
lives as a result of the summit.

"What good will this summit bring us when sadistic Israeli soldiers will
continue
to humiliate and beat our people at these diabolic roadblocks and checkpoints?
Sharon even didn't suggest that he would remove them," Yusuf said.

Roadblocks

Palestinians have consistently demanded the removal of roadblocks that are used
to seal off cities and severely disrupt their lives.

The issue of Palestinian captives and political prisoners, many held without
charge or trial in Israel, is also sensitive.

Tel Aviv last week promised that it would free hundreds of prisoners, out of the
estimated 9000 Palestinians it is holding.

But Palestinians have described the Israeli proposal as "insulting", demanding a
commitment to release all the prisoners in accordance with international law.

Ultimately, the success of the Sharm al-Shaikh summit will depend on Israel's
willingness to take a strategic decision to give up the land it seized after the
1967 Middle East war, al-Masri said.
Aljazeera



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