Global Policy Forum

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened the winter session of the Knesset on Monday with a speech slamming the Geneva Accord proposal for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sharon accused the members of the opposition who had workedwith Palestinian officials on the proposal of providing the Palestinian Authority with anexcuse to escape its formal understandings with the government.

Every Palestinian deviation from the [internationally-brokered] road map is a boost for the terrorist organizations," he said. "But it is no wonder that they are trying to evade its implementation, there are those in Israel who are also ready to deviate from this plan through all kinds of other schemes." Sharon declared PA Chairman Yasser Arafat the "greatest obstacle to peace," prompting several Arab legislators to leave the plenum in protest. The prime minister said Arafat has sabotaged all peace efforts and was to blame for the latest upswing of attacks on Israelis. "This man is the greatest obstacle to peace. Therefore, Israel decided to bring about hisremoval from the political arena," Sharon said, referring to a cabinet decision made last monthin the wake of a deadly suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus.

Touching on the separation fence, Sharon vowed that Israel would accelerate its construction, and promised to complete it within a year. He denied that the barrier, which runs between Israel and the West Bank, was a political border, saying that its sole purpose was to provide security.

Sharon also named the U.S.-sponsored road map, with Israel's 14 amendments, as the only chance for peace in the region. "Our plan represents the only hope of achieving a real breakthrough on the way to peace withthe Palestinians," the prime minister said,amid repeated heckling. "Only a complete renouncement of terror can lead to a new age of peace for the peoples of the region."

The prime minister dismissed the current strike action by civil servants as well as the threat of a widespread general strike, saying that the government would not be swayed from implementing its economic plan. "There is no choice. If we don't make these cuts the entire economy will deteriorate and the weaker sectors will be the hardest hit," Sharon told parliament. "We must condemn attempts to disrupt reform bystrikes," he said. "These won't deter the government from carrying out its plans."

The cabinet has already approved the Finance Ministry's plans to chop 2004 spending by NIS10 billion shekels and Sharon said the proposal would be sent to the plenum "in the coming days." "Our main goals are the determination to maintain stability and reducing the size of thepublic sector... to make room for real expansion of the private sector," Sharon said. "We are looking for dialogue with the workers and I believe we can reach an agreement,"Sharon said. "But it must not paralyze the economy and hurt the weak... just to help the strong unions."

Peres: Road map has become 'road accident'

Taking the floor after Sharon, opposition leader and Labor party chairman Shimon Peres criticized the hostile response to the Geneva Accord, questioning why former American envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross was allowed to hold dialogue with the Palestinians but the same was denied to Israelis. "To the public you say there is no partner," Peres told Sharon, "to the Palestinians you say there is nothing to talk about." He said that the road map had turned into a "road accident," and that the prime minister had "a government that lets you talk but doesn't let you act."

In response to Sharon's statement that the separation fence was in no way political in nature, Peres accused the barrier of being a "coalition fence" whose construction was dictated by political considerations. The opposition leader defended the right to strike of the workers, saying that the labor federation is part of Israeli democracy. "[Histadrut chairman] Amir Peretz does not want strikes," Peres said, "he wants fair play."

In her speech, Meretz faction leader Zahava Gal-On praised the Geneva Accord for being the only initiative which would bring a total end to the dispute with the Palestinians, and slammed the prime minister for what she termed his refusal to accept that there was an alternative to the road map.

Tighter security for new session

The session began against a backdrop of heightened security following intelligence reports that the parliament building could be attacked by Palestinian militants. A Knesset spokeswoman said the measured had been ordered because of general concern that the legislature in Jerusalem could be a target, rather than because of any specific threat. "Security officials have asked us to use strict security measures," she quoted Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin as saying. "The Knesset is an accessible target."

"The Knesset gets 4,000 visitors weekly... Every Israeli citizen can come in and every citizen can be exploited to breach security." Army Radio said the intelligence reports had led to fears that a plan was being hatched to plant a package containing a bomb on a Knesset employee who would take it into the building unawares. Official Israeli buildings or politicians are rarely attacked, but gunmen from the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) shot dead Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi at a Jerusalem hotel two years ago. They said they were avenging Israel's assassination of the group's leader.

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