Arab government leaders expressed Tuesday during the Arab League Summit in Khartoum that it doesn’t matter who wins the Israeli elections, as every Israeli party in the running plans to take more unilateral steps to retain control over occupied Palestinian territories.
"We can’t speculate about the result of the elections but the political programs (of Israeli parties) are clear and most of them are not conducive to reaching a real peace," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa told Reuters.
"Whoever emerges in Israel, there is no peace process. All the parties in Israel have proved that they are an obstacle to peace… They are all faces of the same coin," agreed Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
During the elections Tuesday, Israeli forces sealed off more than 3.5 million Palestinians within the Israeli-controlled borders of the Palestinian territories, as Israelis headed for the polls in the election for the 17th Knesset. The Jerusalem Post described the election as "a referendum on unilaterism" i.e. the policy of the Kadima Party that was on Monday rejected by the Arab foreign ministers preparing for the Arab League summit in Khartoum as well by the Palestinian leadership and the incoming government of Hamas.
Outlining the main points of his incoming government’s program, Hamas Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh on Monday told the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) that his government rejected Israel’s unilateral separation plan, which the Israeli Acting Premier Ehud Olmert pledged to carry out if his Kadima Party won Tuesday’s parliamentary elections in Israel, saying it would “turn our country (the Occupied Palestinian Territory) into isolated cantons.”
Both the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its offshoot the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) reject Israel’s unilateral policy and insist on a negotiated settlement for the Palestinian – Israeli conflict.
Speaker of the PLC, Aziz Dweik, appealed to the Arab League summit, which opened in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Tuesday, to support the Palestinian people.
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Khartoum on Sunday adopted a draft resolution rejecting Israeli Acting Prime Minister’s plan for a unilateral demarcation of Israel’s borders in the West Bank.
Ministers have agreed “to reject partial solutions and unilateral Israeli measures including… the unilateral demarcation of Israel’s borders,” according to the final draft resolution agreed at a preparatory meeting for a two-day Arab summit opening Tuesday.
“This fulfills Israel’s expansionist greed and renders impossible (all plans) to establish a sovereign and independent Palestinian state,” said a copy of the draft seen by Agence France Presse.
However, the Arab ministers called on the ‘Quartet for Mideast Peace, made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, to “stress that any unilateral move should be within the attempts to reach comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East, based on the (2002) Arab peace initiative and the roadmap.”
