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Israelis, Palestinians OK Gaza deal
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 15:27
Israel and the Palestinians, under strong U.S. pressure, reached an agreement
Tuesday to open Gaza's borders starting Nov. 25, a step vital to turning the
economically crippled territory into a success in the wake of Israel's
withdrawal.
The deal, struck during a marathon negotiating session run by Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, gives Palestinians control over a border for the first
time, allowing them to travel freely into Egypt and to export their goods.
Israel will be able to see who comes and goes, with the help of European
monitors, but Palestinians will retain final authority.
"This agreement is intended to give Palestinian people the freedom to move,
to trade, to live ordinary lives," Rice said.
The deal provides a much-needed boost to Gaza's economy and strengthens
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ahead of Jan. 25 parliament elections. Gaza is
seen as a test for how the Palestinians would handle an independent state.
Violence could still derail the deal, as it has countless other agreements
between the two sides. But officials were upbeat, with Rice lauding it as a "big
step forward" in Israeli-Palestinian relations badly damaged by five years of
bloody fighting.
Negotiators immediately began preparing for the gritty work of sorting out
the details of the border agreement, which will also release tens of millions of
dollars in international aid for rebuilding Gaza.
U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
center, EU 's Foreign policy chief Javier Solana, left, and international
Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn during a press conference at the David
Citadel hotel in Jerusalem Tuesday Nov. 15,
2005.[AP] | The deal marked the most intensive
U.S. involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years, and there were
hopes that its success would encourage Rice to become more personally involved
in the future.
Israel and the Palestinians were deadlocked after five months of talks when
Rice decided Monday to postpone her trip to Asia to personally mediate in her
Jerusalem hotel suite.
Getting only two hours sleep, Rice huddled alternately with Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators; at one point a laptop was passed around, with each side
typing proposed changes. The agreement was finally reached at 10:05 a.m.
Tuesday.
"What the Bush administration should learn from this ... is that in order to
move the Israelis and Palestinians into an agreement on something, you need the
big guns from the administration, the ones who can speak for the president, to
twist arms," said Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher. "I would hope that
Rice would get an appetite for this and want to come back."
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