Military

DATE=05/14/2003

TYPE=ON THE LINE SHORT #1

NUMBER=1-01325

TITLE=ROAD MAP FOR PEACE

INTERNET=Yes

EDITOR=OFFICE OF POLICY 619-0038

CONTENT= INSERTS IN DALET AND AUDIO SERVICES

THEME: UP, HOLD UNDER AND FADE

Host: This is On the Line, and I'm ---------.

A road map to peace has been presented to Israel and the Palestinians. Drawn up by the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations, the road map calls on the Palestinian Authority and Israel to meet a series of requirements that would lead to peaceful coexistence.

Marc Ginsberg is former U-S ambassador to Morocco. He says that U-S leadership has been essential to efforts to end the conflict between Palestinians and Israel.

Ginsberg: The president's [George W. Bush's] determination to, in effect require that the Palestinian Authority be reformed and that it begin making the hard choices that it was unable to make or unwilling to make that led to the intifada is essential. But let's understand also that Israel is going to have to make the same type of commitment. Israel is going to have to stop settlement activity. Israel is going to have to recognize that the experiment of colonizing the West Bank needs to come to an end.

Host: Khalil Jahshan is executive vice president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He says there is support among Israelis and Palestinians alike for a peace settlement:

Jahshan: Palestinian public opinion is basically uncomfortable with the status quo. Similar to, in a way, the Israeli public opinion -- they have suffered on the humanitarian level, on the economic level, and on the political level. They would like a way out, a return to the negotiating table if possible. A similar percentage on the Israeli side and on the Palestinian side, are showing basically interest and support for the road map as a way out of this hug of death on which they have found themselves over the past thirty months.

Host: Marc Ginsberg says that public opinion won't amount to much if the Palestinians do not stop the terrorism against Israel.

Ginsberg: While I've said that the Israeli government has to, in effect, make the important concession to stop settlement activity and to begin rolling them back, let's make it also abundantly clear, it's a choice the Palestinians have got to make for themselves -- that the armed struggle of Hamas and Islamic Jihad represent an effort to sabotage any hope for peace that would lead to the creation of two states. Islamic Jihad and Hamas do not want two states living side by side and the Palestinians are going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later.

Host: Khalil Jahshan says that actions by the U-S and Israel will effect Palestinians willingness to make that choice.

Jahshan: If the Palestinians see the light at the end of the tunnel, if they indeed see some serious support for the road map, that Washington means business, that Tel Aviv and Jerusalem means business, I think you will find that the Palestinian side would move forward in a much quicker and much more decisive way.

Host: One of the first steps on the road map to peace is for the Palestinian Authority to end terrorism. For On the Line, I'm ----------------.