[Jerusalem Post] Dore Gold - The Quartet issued a new policy statement in New York on September 24 about the state of Israeli-Palestinian contacts that was extremely disturbing. The statement discarded the principle of reciprocity, which is a fundamental axiom of international law. The Quartet called on both parties to "act on their previous agreements and obligations - in particular adherence to the Roadmap, irrespective of reciprocity." The Roadmap was issued in March 2003 by the Quartet, which was formed by the Bush administration to provide European states with a formal peacemaking role in exchange for gaining their support for the Iraq War. But the original Roadmap was "performance-based" - movement from one stage to the next was contingent upon the fulfillment by both Israelis and Palestinians of their respective responsibilities. The new formal position of the Quartet provides the final blow to the Roadmap's carefully structured conditionality. The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to the UN.
2009-10-02 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive