US embassy cable - 05DHAKA1699

UNCLAS DHAKA 001699 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR I/FW, B/G, IIP/G/NEA-SA, B/VOA/N (BANGLA SERVICE) STATE 
FOR SA/PAB, SA/PPD (LSCENSNY, SSTRYKER), SA/RA, INR/R/MR, 
AND PASS TO USAID FOR ANE/ASIA/SA/B (WJOHNSON) 
 
CINCPAC FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR, J51 (MAJ TURNER), J45 
(MAJ NICHOLLS) 
 
USARPAC FOR APOP-IM (MAJ HEDRICK) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR, OIIP, OPRC, KPAO, PREL, ETRD, PTER, ASEC, BG, OCII 
SUBJECT: Media Reaction: Middle East; Dhaka 
 
 
Summary: An op-ed page article in "Daily Star" apprehends 
that the Palestinian issue may slip from Washington's 
priorities as the U.S. is engaged in greater Middle East 
issues. 
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Middle East 
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"Palestinian State: Unpredictable As Ever" 
An op-ed page article by M. Abdul Hafiz, former Director 
General of the Bangladesh Institute of International and 
Strategic Studies in the English language newspaper "Daily 
Star" opines (4/11): 
"... early in last February in a summit hosted by President 
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Mahmud Abbas, the President of 
Palestinian Authority, and Israel's Ariel Sharon agreed on a 
ceasefire hoping that it would lead to peace. However, there 
has been no progress in that direction. There is no 
indication either from Tel Aviv or Washington that a new 
peace plan is on the anvil. Only hope emanates from 
President Bush's commitment to the revival of peace process. 
In his state of the union address on the second February 
last George Bush called for a two-state solution of the Arab- 
Israeli imbroglio as before. Since then Washington has not 
as yet come up with any plan laying down timetable for the 
withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territory and 
the emergence of a sovereign Palestinian state. 
As the US is at the moment engaged on bigger chessboard of 
Mid-East politics that includes Iran in the Gulf and Lebanon 
in the Levant the West Asian peace might have slipped out of 
Washington's priority but the US will hopefully come up with 
a 'new road map to peace' any time soon. What is however 
more crucial in this regard is whether Israel will accept 
such plan and cooperate with the peace brokers and how much 
the US will be able to withstand Israeli intransigence -- 
given her strong lobby working in Bush Administration. The 
doubt arises from the fates of many similar peace plans in 
the past which all ended in fiasco. 
The peace processes are in progress in one form or other for 
last one and half decade. It began with the signing on 13 
February, 1993 of a declaration of principles by PLO leader 
Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It 
provided for the coming into being of a Palestinian state 
ten years later by 2003. Rabin was murdered by a Zionist 
fanatic and those who followed him -- Mr. Netanyahu and Ehud 
Barak -- shot down the peace process itself with the full 
help from the Zionist hawks of Clinton Administration -- Ms 
Madeleine Albright, Mr Denis Ross and Martin Indyke. Mr Bush 
announced an abortive 'new road map' in April 2003 providing 
for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and 
the emergence of a Palestinian state by 2005. Bush himself 
torpedoed the road map when he started pleading for Ariel 
Sharon by saying that Israel would have to retain 'some' 
West Bank land and as such the proposed withdrawal could not 
be 'total'. Later he also described 2005 as an unrealistic 
date for a Palestinian state to emerge. 
In the meantime scepticism abounds as to what would be the 
fate of another peace plan that may be announced sooner or 
later."[sic] 
Chammas