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Koenig's Recent Commentary Powell's Message Puts U.S. November 21, 2001 Note from Bill: United States Secretary of State Colin Powell’s message on Monday in Louisville, Kentucky, was reported to represent the Bush Administration’s Middle East position. Following are “highlights” (or perhaps more appropriately “low lights”) from that speech:
Fred Barnes, co-host of the Fox Channel’s Beltway Boys stated, “I don’t see any reason for (Secretary Powell) giving this message.” Putting all of this into perspective, neither President George H. W. Bush (“the elder”) nor President Bill Clinton ever made a public position on the Middle East while in office. My opinion is that the Lord has allowed the United States to officially present her position pertaining to God’s covenant land to the world. Now, all the nations of the world have allowed their position to be made public, in addition to major organizations (such as the World Council of Churches and the Vatican), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (U.N.). Playing the Middle East card virtually completes a scenario wherein the nations have come against Israel (Zechariah 12:2-3), and the probability of a treaty (covenant) ensuring peace and security "with many" (Daniel 9:27) is very feasible. It is extremely interesting that the EU, along with certain nations of the Arab world, is currently pushing for a "a two-basket deal" calling for establishment of the Palestinian state along with a collective Arab guarantee for the security of Israel. ( Click here for the EU article.) Except for Israel, Powell's speech played well to world leaders. Following are excerpts from an Israeli editorial critique and two articles on the EU and the U.N.'s satisfaction with Powell's message. Also included are stories pertaining to the 89 Senators’ letter to President Bush and the White House restrictions placed on Powell’s message. -------
Criticism of Secretary Powell's speech
• Powell strongly criticized Israeli settlement activity, saying it "has severely undermined Palestinian trust and hope. It pre-empts and prejudges the outcome of negotiations and, in doing so, cripples chances for real peace and security." He did not, however, call upon the PLO to cease its own construction in strategic places in the same areas—also a form of “pre-empting the outcome.” • Powell's reference to negotiation over the ultimate fate of Jerusalem could have only one outcome: Israeli concessions, meaning an end to Jerusalem's status as the indivisible and eternal capital of the Jewish People. • Powell's call for the confirmation of yet another agreement with the PLO ignores Chairman Yasser Arafat’s 37-year track record of systematically violating all his international commitments. • Powell said, “Palestinians need security, as well. Too many innocent Palestinians, including children, have been killed and wounded. This, too, must stop.” The implication is that the “innocent” Palestinians who were killed by accident, or “not so innocent” Palestinians who were killed in the course of Israeli self-defense, are equivalent to the truly “innocent” Israelis who were deliberately targeted by Palestinian terrorism. • Powell noted, “The Palestinian leadership must arrest, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of terrorist acts.” Powell did not mention the Palestinian’s Oslo Treaty obligation to extradite them to Israel for punishment. • The bottom line is that—in return for an end to terrorism—the Palestinians will receive a state. “Would the American people tolerate awarding Bin Laden with a state in return for him calling off terrorism?” asks Nadia Matar of the Women in Green organization in Israel. ------ No Parallel, Significant, Peace Bloc An editorial in Israel's most popular daily newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, Tuesday expressed doubt as to whether Powell’s speech would have a practical effect: “Despite the Americans’ diplomatic desire to create a balanced vision, the two peoples’ willingness to accept and adopt it is not balanced at all…" The paper claims that while a large majority of Israelis would be willing to accept the principles Powell enumerated, "there is still no parallel, significant, peace bloc among the Palestinians, and especially not in the Islamic and Arab countries further away from Israel. “There is no sincere cultural willingness to recognize Israel as a sovereign Jewish state and to put a decisive end to the war against Zionism. There is no realistic desire to reach an end to the conflict. “There is no state effort to change the format of Islam’s education for hatred. There is no conceptual or moral countenancing of a solution to the refugee problem outside Israel’s borders. There is no rallying of public opinion against terrorism; the rallying in favor of it continues.” ------
Javier Solana welcomes Colin Powell’s speech Following the speech Sunday by U.S. Secretary of State Powell, Javier Solana, the European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, made the following statement: “I warmly welcome Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech today, which set out a clear vision of the essential elements for lasting peace in the Middle East. I applaud, too, his reaffirmation of the U.S. commitment to contribute to such a peace and to work to resurrect the spirit of Madrid. I welcome in particular his announcements that he will dispatch William Burns to the region and that he has appointed General Zinni as his special adviser. “I see this as an important step, offering an opportunity to bring about a cease-fire and opening the way towards implementation of the Mitchell Report recommendations. I offer the European Union’s full support to the effort. “The European Union has been actively engaged in an effort to implement the recommendations of the Mitchell Report and to contribute to the peace process. I am delighted that President Bush and his Administration have reaffirmed their profound commitment to the same objectives and that together we can make progress towards a lasting peace." ------
Annan Endorses Powell on Israel UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. chief endorsed a new U.S. call Monday for Israel to stop building settlements on land that Washington now says should be part of a Palestinian state. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that he welcomed Powell's speech which flushed out proposals by President Bush earlier this month at the U.N. General Assembly. Bush outlined ``a vision of a state of Israel and a state of Palestine living side by side within secure borders.'' Annan's statement said he “warmly endorses” Powell's remarks which emphasized the need for both the Israelis and Palestinians to observe a cease-fire that would allow both sides to implement recommendations in a report released earlier this year by former Sen. George Mitchell. ``These recommendations relate both to a 100 percent Palestinian effort to end violence and to the need for Israel to halt all settlement activity and end the occupation,'' Annan said. ------
“89 Senators Urge Bush Not to Hamper Israel” By ELAINE SCIOLINO WASHINGTON, Nov. 16—In a letter to President Bush Friday, 89 senators urged him not to restrain Israel from retaliating fully against Palestinian violence and to express his solidarity publicly with Israel soon. The six-paragraph letter was intended to prevent Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from including direct or indirect criticism of Israel and from offering inducements to the Palestinians in a speech he will give at the University of Louisville on Monday. “There is constant concern about the administration's wavering,” said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is one of the signatories. “Powell talks about the cycle of violence that suggests one produces the other and that there is a moral equivalency, which is not true. Terrorists killing civilians is totally unjustified, and Israel's response is self-defense.” ------
Tone down on Israel, Powell told The White House intervened to water down Monday's speech on the Middle East by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to prevent any appearance of United States concessions being made to terrorists. President George W. Bush is believed to have sided with the Pentagon and with the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and has blocked Mr. Powell from putting too much pressure on Israel to make concessions in the search for peace. As a result, Washington officials said, the long-awaited speech on US policy, which began to be drafted before the September 11 attack and which was to have been delivered several weeks ago, would be what one called “less of a new initiative and more of a general call for people to buck up their ideas.” Mr. Bush pleased Palestinian officials nine days ago by declaring that the US was “working towards the day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders,” the first time he had referred to a hoped-for Palestinian state by name. The Administration also accepted that Israel will eventually have to give up land for peace, in accordance with a United Nations resolution. However, Mr. Bush refused to meet the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, at the U.N. General Assembly, and at a diplomatic lunch, he declined to greet or acknowledge him. Bush aides said he was signaling his dissatisfaction with Mr. Arafat's lack of efforts to crack down on terrorists in Palestinian-controlled territory. The snub so incensed Mr. Arafat—he is said to have felt humiliated—that a U.N. envoy was sent to Gaza last week to calm him. Mr. Arafat also faced a snub at home when his Fatah faction was beaten for the first time in more than 30 years in student elections last week at Nablus University by radical Hamas Islamic activists. Mr. Arafat's group suffered a 25 per cent drop in support as Hamas swept to a 48 seat to 28 victory on the general student assembly. The outcome is particularly significant because student elections are now the only free expression of opinion in the Palestinian territories. Mr. Arafat has refused to hold legislative and municipal elections for more than five years. Mr. Powell's original aim was to set out the Administration's vision for setting up a Palestinian state, including complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, to be followed by peace negotiations on final status issues such as borders, refugees and the fate of Jerusalem. He has been encouraged by signs that moderate Arab states will recognize Israel and its continued right to exist if the Palestinians decide to do so themselves, an essential element of any peace agreement. Last week, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said: "If the Palestinians accept this issue we will respect the wishes of the Palestinian nation." Mr. Powell is now expected to confine himself to an impassioned call for both sides to implement the cease-fire brokered in June and for a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
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