Madam, - The reaction to President Bush's support for Ariel Sharon's withdrawal plan is overblown.
It has long been recognised that any final status arrangement involving Israel and the Palestinians would leave Israel holding on to some of occupied territory it seized from Jordan in the 1967 war. Indeed, some of these settlements, such as the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, predate modern Israel itself.
The UN Security Council resolutions envisage agreed changes to the 1949 armistice lines. The bilateral Beilin-Mazen agreement and the recently signed Geneva Accords go so far as to detail these changes. Indeed, the Arafat-Barak talks at Camp David and Taba did not fail on the annexation of West Bank settlements so much as the right of return for Arab refugees who left or were expelled from Israel in 1948-49. In fact, Bush's position on the settlements and the refugee question is entirely consistent with Clinton parameters of 2001.
Clearly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is entering a new phase. At long last, right-wing Zionists such as Ariel Sharon have accepted that they cannot subdue Palestinians and occupy their lands for much longer. The evacuation of Gaza presents the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state for the first time in history.
Israeli rejectionism is coming to an end. It remains to be seen whether the Palestinians will exchange the rejectionism of the intifada for some realistic demands. - Yours etc.
Cllr LEO VARADKAR,
Roselawn Road,
Dublin 15.