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"I
think it if it had complied with Security Council resolutions, we
might well have had peace some time ago."
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CAIRO,
October 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel has failed to
comply with a number of UN resolutions and might have achieved peace
already with the Palestinians if it had, EU External Relations
Commissioner Chris Patten charged here Sunday.
"Israel
is not complying with a number of Security Council resolutions,"
Patten told reporters after talks here with Egyptian Foreign Minister
Ahmed Maher, adding he agreed with an Egyptian journalist's assessment
about such non-compliance, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"I
think it is extremely regrettable that it's not" complying, he
said, flanked by Maher. "I think it if it had complied with
Security Council resolutions, we might well have had peace some time
ago."
Patten
did not specify which resolutions he meant, but following Israel's siege
last month of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's headquarters in
Ramallah, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1435.
It
not only called for lifting the siege, which was relaxed on September
29, but also demanded from both sides "the complete cessation of
all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation,
incitement and destruction."
The
resolution also demanded "the expeditious withdrawal of the Israeli
occupying forces from Palestinian cities towards the return to the
positions held prior to September 2000", when the Palestinian
uprising broke out.
Patten
said he hoped that the cooperation among the quartet on the Middle East
-- the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union
– along with partners like Egypt will give "us a better prospect
for peace.
"But
I'm not ludicrously optimistic. I just think it is better to try rather
than not try," he added.
Speaking
to Israeli ministers at the government's weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Sunday he believed Israel was being
"quietly boycotted in Europe" because of its actions in the
Palestinian territories, Israel public radio reported.
Peres'
comments came just days after he returned from a 24-hour trip to France.
"It
is not Israel's explanations (about its policy) that are to blame -- it
is what we're doing in the field," he said, saying explanations
meant nothing in the face of footage showing Israeli actions in the
territories.
"Why
do we have to blow up houses every day? Why can't it just be done in one
day of concentrated action?" the radio quoted him as saying.
Israeli
Sports Minister Matan Vilnai also said he sensed a hatred for Israel in
Paris, while right-wing minister without portfolio Dan Meridor said he
sensed a similar phenomenon in London.
Meanwhile,
also in Cairo, Israeli minister without portfolio Danny Naveh arrived
for talks about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the top advisor to
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, an Israeli embassy official said.
Naveh
will speak to Mubarak's political advisor Osama al-Baz about the latest
developments in the Palestinian territories and Israel as well as the
stalled peace process, the embassy official said.
During
his visit of several hours, Naveh will also see Azzam Azzam, an Israeli
Druze who was condemned here in June 1997 to 15 years in prison on
charges of spying for Israel, the official added.
During
previous trips to Egypt, Naveh has visited Azzam Azzam, who is being
held in Torah prison in the southern suburbs of Cairo.
In
another development, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said
Sunday Israel was intending to implement a "Judea First"
security plan which would see Israeli troops pulling out of Hebron,
Israel radio reported.
"We've
tried the Gaza and Bethlehem First (plan) but in Gaza it didn't work, so
we want to implement the Bethlehem model in Hebron", the minister
told reporters while en route to a 48-hour visit to Paris.
Judea
is the Biblical term used by Israel for the southern West Bank, while
the northern area is known as Samaria.
"Bethlehem
was really a test and it went very positively, so now we're turning to
the subject of Judea First, which means expanding the plan from
Bethlehem to Hebron and all the surrounding areas," he said.
Ben
Eliezer did not elaborate further on the proposal, nor was there any
indication of when it might take place.
The
"Gaza and Bethlehem First" security plan, which was agreed in
August, involved a phased Israeli withdrawal from reoccupied Palestinian
areas in return for the Palestinians taking over security control.
The
new security arrangement was kicked off in Bethlehem and Gaza on August
19, but the withdrawal was not fully implemented in Gaza after
cooperation between the two sides broke down following an outbreak of
violence in the area.
By
contrast, the plan has appeared to work in the southern West Bank area
of Bethlehem, which Israeli troops left in mid August.
The
plan was proposed during the summer by Ben Eliezer as part of a wider
deal for a gradual army pullout from areas reoccupied since the
beginning of the intifada, which kicked off in September 2000.
