Palestinian State

PARIS -- The political struggle between Palestinians and Israelis may soon explosively escalate. The Palestinian authority may shortly assert that an independent and sovereign Palestinian state exists, and claim U.N. admittance and full international recognition.The most important Palestinian newspaper in Jerusalem, Al-Quds, and the London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat (which has a quarter-million circulation in the Arab world), both have in the past few days published articles arguing that a Palestinian state already exists, so far as the law of nations is concerned, and recommending that the Palestinian authorities assert that state's sovereignty over Palestine.

PHASE One: creation of a Palestinian state controlled by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Phase Two: use of that state to carry on the struggle until "all Palestinian territory," which means Israel, is under Palestinian domination.For a quarter-century that has been the two-phase policy of the PLO. Sometimes it is stated formally -- as at the PLO Cairo meeting in 1974. And day after day it has been proclaimed one way or another in PLO speeches to the Palestinian people.History shows this was not bluff but passion.

YASSER ARAFAT'S achievement was remarkable. Without him, the Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948 might have been as forgotten as the German refugees, at least 20 times as numerous, who were expelled from their homes in Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1945. The trouble is that, having managed to focus the world's attention on the Palestinians by every means available to him - from terrorism to diplomacy - Mr. Arafat couldn't translate that focus, and the international support that flowed from it, into the creation of a Palestinian state.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a diplomatic push in the Middle East, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, but the idea of a two-state solution brought up differences between the officials. At a news conference at the Fatah Party headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Rice and Abbas smiled, shook hands and emphasized their mutual determination to move forward in establishing a Palestinian state. But while Abbas mentioned the importance of moving toward a two-state solution, as laid out in the U.S.-backed "road map," he rejected the plan's phased approach of first establishing a provisional Palestinian state.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, battling to win greater international support for his stand on Iraq, said yesterday that he was ready to present a "road map" for resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He said the action awaited only the Palestinian legislature's expected appointment of a prime minister to a position of "real authority." Speaking briefly at a hastily called appearance in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said, "We have reached a hopeful moment for progress."

Washington. -- Ninety-nine years have passed since Theodor Herzl, appalled by anti-Semitism during the 1894 Dreyfus trial, energized the Zionist movement that produced the Jewish state. Now, it suddenly seems probable that there soon will be a second Palestinian state, of sorts.What sort? On the answer to that question, the survival of the Jewish state depends.Jordan is geographically, historically and ethnically a Palestinian state. Like the other 20 nations of the Arab world, Jordan never expressed even the slightest interest in the establishment of another Palestinian state on the West Bank -- until Jordan's 1967 aggression against Israel cost Jordan that land.

WAYNE, Pa. - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has never minced words about his long-term vision for Israel and the future he has in store for his Palestinian neighbors - a greater Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Within this greater Israel, Palestinians would be confined to "security zones" dotted by Jewish settlements and Israeli army bases, their movement closely watched and regulated and their economy tightly controlled and subservient to that of Israel. Palestinians would be allowed to "administer" themselves - take care of the daily chores of picking up garbage, sweeping the streets, regulating traffic and chasing common thieves - but would not be allowed to build an independent economy or live free from outside interference as a sovereign nation.

PRESIDENT YASSER Arafat is talking about a Palestinian prime minister, an appointment he would make after the January 2003 elections and once a Palestinian state is declared. Is that the Yasser Arafat talking? Has the old revolutionary turned dictator come around to the idea that his days of running the Palestinian Authority as a fiefdom won't survive demands for political reform? Don't bet on it. And yet the fact that Mr. Arafat has acknowledged the need for a day-to-day manager to operate a Palestinian state is intriguing.

A"DEADLY BLOW" to Palestinian aspirations for statehood. In a phrase, that's the expected outcome of Israel's plan to withdraw its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip. The assessment comes not from agitated Palestinian leaders but from the plan's architect and chief sponsor, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Just so we're clear: White House approval of Mr. Sharon's Gaza plan will likely defer creation of a Palestinian state for years to come. Mr. Sharon is to meet with President Bush Wednesday.

JERUSALEM -- Seeking to build on a shaky cease-fire with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered yesterday to free prisoners, lift checkpoints and release tax revenue withheld from the Palestinian Authority in return for decisive steps by its leaders toward peace. Olmert spelled out Israel's likely concessions under a final peace accord, including a withdrawal of troops and many of its settlements from the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state. "I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbors in the hope that it won't be returned empty," he said during a ceremony at the tomb of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father.