WASHINGTON: A quartet is one of the most sensitive and expressive combinations in music, requiring that the players read from the same sheet of music.
In diplomatic terms, the “quartet” is still a foursome — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — formed to show the way toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In their meeting this week in Washington, it was clear that the four parties were not reading from the same sheet of music most of the time.
A scheduled joint news conference by the representatives of the quartet at the State Department in Washington was cancelled rather than display the discord that characterized the day-long talks.
At the core of the disharmony was the special relationship between the United States and Israel — more specifically, the very special relationship between US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Facing a re-election vote in late January, Sharon asked Bush to postpone any publicity or specific action on the quartet’s “road map” for peace until after the Israeli elections. The European Union, the other leading voice in the foursome, wanted the plan to be published immediately, in order to prevent the further spread of extremism caused by the continuing Israel-Palestinian violence, in which the majority of casualties are Palestinian civilians.
Bush prevailed over his partners, even though the basics of the so-called road-map are well known. The plan calls for a three-stage, step-by-step process in which Palestinians and Israelis would negotiate an end to Israeli occupation of most of the West Bank and Gaza. This would lead to a Palestinian state, which would recognize the state of Israel and, in turn, be recognized by Israel.
Sharon does not want his re-election campaign complicated by the idea that Israel would ever deal with a Palestinian government. He insists that Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat be removed before anything like that could occur. The American president agrees with Sharon that Arafat should go.
But the other three players in the quartet do not believe it is the business of mediators to dictate the leadership of warring parties. They also expressed the belief that further Israeli settlements and road-building in the West Bank will produce a “Swiss cheese” Palestine, so geographically disrupted by the settlements and fences that it could not operate as an autonomous state.
Hanging over all this infighting is the growing possibility that there could be an American attack on Iraq by late January — about the same time as the Israeli elections.
The United Nations and the European Union want the American military action against Iraq to be deferred, and if possible avoided, as the political and diplomatic pressure on Saddam Hussein produces more Iraqi cooperation with United Nations weapons inspectors.
The core difference in the quartet is that the United States rejects its partners’ desire to avoid inflaming the Arab world. The United States government — under pressure from a strongly pro-Israel US Congress — does not want to do anything that would weaken the Israeli government and prevent it from using military action against the Palestinians.
This is a difference that will not disappear, no matter how vocal the desire for a harmonious quartet.—dpa
