http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=37639&mador=4
Ha'aretz, January 8, 1999
The price of suspending Wye
By Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz
In a seemingly sophisticated maneuver, the
government of Israel has suspended the Wye
Plantation agreement. The announcement did not
say that Israel was halting the negotiations with
the Palestinians. It even pointed out that Israel
would continue with the "peace process," but
placed conditions on the agreement, and declared
it would not implement the next withdrawal. Only
when the Palestinian Authority had fulfilled its
commitments would Israel do its part, stated the
announcement.Now that the election campaign has
begun, it is highly unlikely that the government
will suddenly change this decision. The Americans
have stated that the Palestinians have so far
fulfilled all their commitments in the agreement.
They have also stated that no new conditions
should be added.
Yet Washington was not surprised by Israel's
move. The Americans predicted last October that
Netanyahu would make their lives miserable before
the designated 12-week implementation period was
up, and that it would do everything it could to
delay fulfilling its commitments. Indeed, it is
clear that the delay will be prolonged. In fact,
the ball is now in the American court - not only
on the Israeli side or in the Palestinians'
court, as Israel claims. The Americans can now
say: You asked for $1.2 billion for aid in
implementing the Wye agreement. Since you have
unilaterally suspended the agreement, the special
aid connected with it will also be suspended. In
the past, Congress suspended aid to the
Palestinians because they did not meet their
commitments. Why not use the same criterion for
Israel?
But some in Israel believe that Congress has two
separate accounts: one for the money that will
come no matter what, another for the
implementation of the agreement. Moreover, it is
clear that part of the American aid will
indirectly contribute to bolstering Israel's hold
on the territories, and not to executing the
withdrawal as part of the agreements.
Meanwhile, there has been a significant
development in the matter of the IDF redeployment
in the West Bank. During the negotiations on the
Wye agreement, the Americans were told that
Israel plans to begin immediately to relocate
Israeli army camps from the West Bank. Specific
army camps were mentioned, such as the division
command, basic training camps and the reserves
brigade command. For some reason, the first stage
of the evacuation program focused on the
organizational aspect, such as where training
areas could be found - and less on the strategic
one. An impression was created that more forces
were to be relocated within the Green Line and
less to the Jordan Valley, where Israel's hold
had in any case weakened due to the impending
evacuation in the Judean Desert. All this has now
changed following orders from the chief of staff.
Unrelated to the cabinet decision to suspend the
withdrawal, Major-General Shaul Mofaz ordered
that the evacuation plan be changed. According to
the order, no training or basic training bases
would be evacuated for the time being. The army
camps will remain where they are, even if they
end up located within Area B. Their fate will be
dealt with at a later stage, when it becomes
clear how the Palestinians behave after the
withdrawals, and the withdrawal from the camps
will be left for the final status arrangement.
The upcoming changes in the redeployment will
take place in the area of Judea and Samaria,
without crossing the Green Line, except perhaps
for the relocation of the training grounds of one
of the brigades from the Judean Desert to within
the Green Line. The emphasis at this stage of the
evacuation will be on the relocation of IDF
forces to within the settlements or next to them
to give the civilian population a sense of
security.
As for those settlers who ideologically oppose
this entrenchment in preparation for the future,
some are not even willing to put up fences around
the settlements, to set up new military positions
or to provide additional protection for their
cars. They say that if there is peace, all these
things are unnecessary, and if there is no peace
and the situation is dangerous, then we most
certainly should not withdraw. The IDF has
received orders to conduct negotiations with each
and every settlement that the army intends to
enter during the withdrawal. If the settlers
persist in their refusal, ways to force the
military presence on them should be examined by
the country's leadership, who think more about
the political aspect of the problem than the
security aspects. If this is the spirit of the
orders given by the chief of staff while, at the
same time, the Wye agreement has been suspended,
Israel's representatives would do better not to
go off to Washington to conduct monetary
negotiations concerning actions that Israel does
not want to implement just now
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