Amid increasing international pressure on Israel to accept international observers in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Friday that while Israel still rejected the overall concept, American observers might be acceptable if the decision was forced on Israel.
"The whole matter of observers is unacceptable to us, but if this is forced on us, I will live with the presence of American monitors," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
He said the US Central Intelligence Agency already oversaw Israeli-Palestinian efforts to cooperate on security issues.
Pressure for international monitors has increased after a statement by the G-8 industrialized countries Thursday calling for their deployment and increasing calls from the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the killing Thursday night of three Palestinians, including an infant, in a roadside ambush. A Jewish extremist group calling itself "the Committee for Road Safety" took responsibility.
The defense minister expressed fear that the murder Thursday night of three Palestinians would escalate the violence and would quicken the deployment of international observers in the territories.
He claimed that the deployment of the observers would be a prize for those “carrying out acts of terror,” adding that circumstances on the “northern border and Mount Hebron reflect that such observers are not beneficial.”
However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office published an official statement Friday saying that Israel's stance on opposing any sort of deployment in the territories had not changed.
The statement issued Thursday by the G-8 industrialized countries, currently meeting in Genoa, called for a third party force in the territories to oversee a truce between Israelis and Palestinians.
"We believe," said the G-8 statement, "that third-party monitoring, accepted by both parties, would serve their interests in implementing the Mitchell Report. In light of the alarming developments in the Middle East, we reaffirm that the Mitchell Report is the only way forward."
Sharon said Thursday that the statement by the G-8 countries must be accepted by both parties, Haaretz reported.
"That's ... what we insisted on, that no decision [by the G-8] would force Israel to accept a step it doesn't want," Sharon said.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who has long called for international intervention, told the Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, that the statement was "a real beginning" of a return to quiet in the Occupied Territories.
But PA sources told Haaretz that only US pressure on Israel to accept a monitoring team from overseas would lead to a truce and the implementation of the Mitchell Report recommendations – Albawaba.com
Israel has always rejected international observers as an interference with its sovereignty and its military freedom of movement. But Israel had little choice but to accept observers in the divided West Bank city of Hebron shortly after Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians and injured more than 50 others in 1994.
Another reason Israel objects to international monitoring is because it has been a constant Palestinian demand since the first Palestinian Intifada that began in 1987, and as such some Israeli officials feel that the deployment of an international observer force would be tantamount to a diplomatic victory for the Palestinians.
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
