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KURTZER FAULTS PA PROBE OF GAZA ATTACK
by Jenny Hazan
Jerusalem Post, Feb. 10, 2004
"We are frankly not satisfied to date that we have seen enough results,"
US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer said Monday of the Palestinian Authority investigation
into the October bomb attack on an American Embassy convoy that killed three US
security officers traveling in the Gaza Strip.
He specifically criticized the Palestinian military court that on Saturday
began to try four individuals suspected of involvement in the attack.
"We were not advised of this in advance and we don't believe that this
is the way to proceed. We want to see an open trial," he said in an address
on "The American Perspective on the Situation" that he delivered to
300 Conservative rabbis from around the world.
"If these people are in fact the suspects that should be tried, it ought
to be done in a criminal proceeding and not behind closed doors," Kurtzer
told the crowd, who had gathered at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem for the 104th
Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement.
"We're not even sure that the charge sheet that has been put together
reflects the gravity of the crime. The charges seem to implicate these individuals
for involuntary manslaughter rather than what we would call first-degree murder."
Kurtzer also denounced the Palestinian Authority for the collapse of the road
map peace process. "The road map failed because of terrorism," he
said. "It failed because Palestinians had not only not done enough to stop
terrorism and had not done enough to uproot the terrorist infrastructure, but
in the wake of the terrorism directed at Israeli citizens on August 19, the
Palestinians did nothing," he said.
"A significant amount of American resources have been dedicated to the
reconstitution of this mishmash of Palestinian security organizations that don't
do security, but exist on paper," he said. "
Many of the people involved
in those organizations actually have resorted to terrorism in the past three
and a half years, when in fact their mandate should be to protect the Palestinian
people from bad guys and thereby also to stop the terrorism that affects the
people of Israel."
He continued, "We don't know whether or not the Palestinians will undertake
to fulfill their first and most critical obligation to stop the terrorism and
then to continue beyond that obligation and fulfill their commitment to undermine
and to take down terrorist infrastructure. We don't know if this process will
be able to sustain itself in the face of terrorism in the period ahead."
The Israeli government's potential plan for unilateral separation also causes
him concern. "We don't yet have a position on unilateral withdrawal because we haven't
seen an Israeli plan," said Kurtzer, who nevertheless noted that the United
States has not for the last 37 years supported a unilateral effort by either
party.
"The outcome in this peace process must be arrived at through negotiations
and by agreement and not by the unilateral actions of any party."
Kurtzer was circumspect in addressing the construction of the security fence.
"Israel's choices when it comes to how it defends itself are Israel's choices.
If Israel makes the decision that the security fence is an important adjunct
to its security, then the United States will support that," he said.
"However, if decisions on the routing of the fence are taken for reasons
that have less to do with security and more to do with politics, then we will
have problems with it."
On the other hand, Kurtzer said he was optimistic about Sharon's plan to uproot
settlements, a stipulation of the road map supported by the US government since
1967.
And he spoke positively about the country's decisions for economic reform.
"If the people of Israel can hang tough, Israel can be put on a very strong
footing to see its economy regrow as it did throughout the 1990s," Kurtzer
said. "I think the government has gotten off to a very good start this
year, which gives us hope that over the middle and longer term, the economic
security of Israel can be preserved.
"You have come at an interesting time," he told the rabbis. "We
don't really know where we are at this point."
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