The Associated Press reports:
Israel pledged to remove some West Bank roadblocks as a start to “concrete steps” in an agreement Sunday with the Palestinians that is aimed at paving the way for a final peace deal this year.
Get it? Roadblocks … concrete …paving. Those Associated Press writers are a laugh-a-minute.
Reading on, you would be forgiven for thinking the entire article is a joke. Or at least hoping it is.
Under the plan that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced, Israel will remove about 50 roadblocks and upgrade checkpoints to speed up the movement of Palestinians through the West Bank.
The Israelis also will give Palestinians more security responsibility in the town of Jenin with an eye toward looking at “other areas in turn.” They also pledged to increase the number of travel and work permits for Palestinians and to support economic projects in Palestinian towns.
In return, the Palestinians promised to improve policing of Jenin “to provide law and order, and work to prevent terror,” according to a State Department statement.
In other words, Israel agrees on a whole range of gestures, including relaxing security measures that have proven to be effective in reducing the number of palestinian terrorist attacks inside Israel, while the PA promises to..try prevent terror. Besides the fact that they supposedly promised to do that at the beginning of Oslo, it is something the success of which can’t really be measured. After all, the palestinians can always claim they have been trying, but haven’t been able to succeed due to any number of factors, all of which are Israel’s fault.
And to think us Jews are supposedly good negotiators.
Update: Someone please tell me this is an April Fools joke, albeit a few days premature.
Ynet has learned that the series of gestures include the establishment of a city or several neighborhoods near the West Bank city of Ramallah, which would be financed by a Jordanian businessman.
The project would be built north of the town of al-Bireh and is aimed to be inhabited by tens of thousands of Palestinians in a bid to ease the housing shortage in the Ramallah area.
The city will be connected by a road in the Birzeit area, approved by the IDF. The plan is currently subject to the approval of the Civil Administration, in coordination with the Palestinians.
