[Jerusalem Post] David Horovitz - The Bush Administration would be wrong to believe that it can secure a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in the final year or so it has left in office, Martin Indyk, U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Clinton, warned on Thursday. "It's bad to set artificial deadlines," said Indyk, who was deeply involved in the failed push for a permanent deal at Camp David in 2000, and who is now the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "To try to push to a [full] agreement in the final year of the administration is precisely what George Bush criticized Clinton for doing. It would be ironic indeed if Bush wound up doing it himself." The Palestinians "don't have the institutions or the capabilities to be responsible partners" to a final status deal, he said. And no diplomatic process could possibly succeed unless the Palestinians were able to exercise "reliable control" over any territory from which Israel would withdraw as part of an accord.
2007-08-03 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive