By David Singer —— Bio and Archives April 30, 2016
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"I will revive the common-sense understandings reached in the 2004 Bush-Sharon letter and build on them to help ensure Israel has defensible borders"
"... your friends need to know that you will stick by the agreements that you have with them. You've made that agreement, you have to stand by it and the world will be a better place."The Bush-Congress endorsed commitments made in that 2004 letter undoubtedly represent such an agreement. President Bush's letter acknowledged the risks Israel's proposed unilateral disengagement from Gaza represented - and assured Israel that America:
"The negotiations will be based on previous agreements between us, U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the road map and the April 14, 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel."Gaza by then had become a de facto terrorist State with Hamas firmly entrenched as Gaza's governing authority. Israel had since its disengagement been subjected to a sustained barrage of thousands of rockets and mortars fired indiscriminately into Israeli population centres from Gaza by a bewildering variety of terrorist groups and sub-groups who would have had no chance of operating so freely from Gaza if the Israeli Army had remained there. President Obama's attempt to disavow Bush's commitments was first orchestrated by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - as this report on 6 June 2009 disclosed: "Since coming to office in January, President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on Israel to halt all settlement activity in Palestinian areas, a demand rejected by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israelis say they received commitments from the previous US administration of President George W. Bush permitting some growth in existing settlements.They say the US position was laid out in a 2004 letter from Bush to then Israeli premier Ariel Sharon." Clinton rejected that claim, saying any such US stance was informal and
"did not become part of the official position of the United States government."Clinton--doubling again as Obama's attack dog--made Obama's intentions clearer on 25 November 2009:
"We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements."
"The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states."Michael Oren--Israel's Ambassador to Washington between 2009 and 2013-- called for Bush's commitments to be resuscitated on 15 January 2015:
"... it's time to revive the Bush-Sharon letter and act according to it."Others are making similar demands. Trump is responding with his clearly articulated message. Keep agreements made with your allies--don't ditch them. Loyalty will always trump expediency. Obama and Clinton's shameful betrayal of Israel in this sordid affair seems set to be targeted by Trump.
David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com