April 19, 2009

The Price of 'Realism'

By Mark Silverberg
In early April, newly sworn-in Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman made waves during his first speech as Foreign Minister when he announced that Israel is not obligated by agreements reached at the Annapolis Conference. Israel is only obligated, he said, to abide by the Road Map and its terms must be followed precisely and in order. While these two plans for Israeli-Palestinian peace have the same goal of a two-state solution, they go about achieving those aims through very different methods.  The Roadmap was presented by President Bush to Prime Minister Sharon and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in April of 2003, and the Israeli government subsequently adopted the document albeit with fourteen reservations. The U.S.-backed peace proposal set a series of benchmarks designed to move Israelis and Palestinians over a three-year period to the creation of a Palestinian state that would exist in peace with Israel. Basically, the document envisioned a bottom-up performance-based...(Read Full Article)