Road Map to Peace Needs Multilateral Action Plan

With the election of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the intended implementation of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, the Bush administration has a unique opportunity to define the strategic direction of the Road Map [to Peace] Implementation Process (RMIP) and can take a leadership role in that effort, according to a policy recommendation report by an international group of experts convened by Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

The recommendations resulted from a Baker Institute workshop titled “Creating a Road Map Implementation Process Under U.S. Leadership.” The workshop, chaired by Baker Institute director Edward Djerejian, took place during several sessions over an eight-month period. Participants included Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian, American, European, and Canadian governmental and nongovernmental representatives who examined the steps necessary for a successful implementation of Israeli and Palestinian commitments and a return to the road map.

Djerejian, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel, said the group’s report was sent to U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian leaders and officials as well as to Arab and other governments.

“Both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have expressed their willingness to implement their obligations under phase one of the road map and return to bilateral negotiations toward a permanent status agreement and an end to conflict,” the report states. “Although the obligations of the parties are unilateral in nature, neither side can successfully follow through on their commitments without adequate support and coordination from the international community, in particular, the United States.”

Following Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to the Middle East and the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit meeting, the role that the Baker Institute report advocates the United States undertake is proceeding at a timely pace with the administration’s commitments of financial assistance to the Palestinians and the naming of a U.S. security coordinator to assist the Palestinians and the Israelis, Djerejian notes. The group advocated that the Bush administration assist the parties in turning unilateral action into a comprehensive multilateral action program that leads to a renewal of bilateral Israeli–Palestinian negotiations. This would include encouraging both sides to reach a complete and comprehensive cessation of violence as the necessary framework for security action. The United States also should encourage the Palestinian Authority (PA) to consolidate security reform and Israel to implement understandings reached regarding unilateral disengagement and a comprehensive settlement freeze, including natural growth of settlements and outpost removal.

Among the other key recommendations, the United States should:

• Assist in capacity-building supporting Palestinian governmental and security reform and Israeli disengagement, with the necessary technical and professional assistance
• Develop the requirements to allow for an Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor and the transfer of security authority for the Egypt–Gaza border as well as the Gaza airport and seaport, territorial waters, and airspace, to the PA
• Lead an international effort for Palestinian economic rehabilitation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to accompany Israeli disengagement
• Develop with the parties a trilateral working plan for the orderly transfer to the PA of structures and infrastructures in the areas to be evacuated
• Assist in providing a safety net for crisis situations through the establishment of trilateral coordination and liaison mechanisms
• Use its unique political capital of leadership to ensure an adequate response to compliance and noncompliance by the parties

The full report, including the names of participants, is posted at http://bakerinstitute.org.

—B. J. Almond