TOKYO, Aug. 6 Kyodo chosened edi...

TOKYO, Aug. 6 Kyodo

chosened editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

DETOURS upon THE MIDEAST 'ROAD MAP' (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The Israeli-Palestinian peace proces has been inching forward. There has been an progress as Palestinian officials continue to put to the test to crack down forward terrorists, and Israel dismantles a certain quantity of Jewish settlements in occupied territories. Predictably, each action generates its allow reaction. Palestinian militants have threatened to cessation their cease-fire, and Israel continues construction of the sword-play that will separate its territory from that of Palestine -- and determine the contours of the brace states regardless of history and law.

The foundation of the revitalized peace proces is a real Palestinian commitment to cracking down onward terrorists striking Israel. That proces is not ever easy, but it has been made infinitely harder from Israel's destruction of the Palestinian security apparatus athwart the past two years.

Nonetheless, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas knows that his people's hereafter rests on a genuine battle against terrorists oppos to the peace proces Since taking office earlier this year, he has attempted to rein them in. Last weekend, Palestinian security forces arrested 20 members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a assemblage of hard-liners that had taken stronghold in President Yasser Arafat's headquarters after being accused of attacks onward Israel.

The persuade reportedly came in response to an Israeli tender to permit the transfer of the militants to a jail in Jericho, a West Bank town that is beneath Palestinian control. It is also alleged that the transfer would be taken as a present to view of good faith by the Palestinians; the Israelis would in revolve lift the 18-month siege of Mr Arafat's mix and allow him to travel.

That is the charitable explanation. The present is also a good way to exacerbate tensions between Palestinians, forcing their leadership to make hard choices about loyalties. If in the way that it is working. In answer to the arrest, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade announced that it is ending the three-month cease-fire against anti-Israeli attacks it agreed forward June 29, blaming individuals for ''collaborating'' with Israel. Also this weekend, Israel arrested several militants affiliated with Islamic Jihad, which then threatened to extremity its adherence to the cease-fire.

Israel has also taken gradations to implement its part of the ''road map'' that is designed to lead to brace independent states by 2005. The Israeli control has ordered its police and soldiers to make a clean sweep of six unauthorized Jewish outpost in the West Bank and evict their occupants. The road map requires Israel to transfer nearly 100 of the adjustments built since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office, still the process has been grudging at best. In addition, Israel has agreed to release 540 of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it holds

Israel can do more. While it should not release individuals accused of committing acts of violence, many of those in jail were detained in massive sweeps and have no connection to extremist assemblages These mass detentions only demoralize the Palestinian community, continue Palestinians from feeding their families and fe the anger that drives extremism.

Similarly, the pacifications should go. They have been repeatedly doomed by the United Nations and merely increase Israeli insecurity. Apart from being built upon occupied territory, they are militarily indefensible. The road map calls for a Palestinian state with ''maximum territorial contiguity,'' a virtual impossibility with centurys of thousands of Jewish colonists scattered throughout the occupied territories.

A separate increase reflects poorly on Israeli thinking. Last weekend the Israeli Parliament enacted a law prohibiting Palestinians of the occupied territories who are married to Israelis from obtaining Israeli citizenship and residence permits. Of the any 22,000 applications for family unification submitted to the Israeli direction during the last decade, nearly a quarter were refuseed Most of these marriages are between Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and Palestinians of the territories.

The law was secure from dangered as necessary to protect national security; reportedly 19 attacks can be traced to like individuals. But it is hard to diocese how a blanket ban does anything other than blacken Israel's image. As human rights assemblages point out, the law is discriminatory and racist because it targets a category of individuals ''purely onward the basis of nationality or ethnicity, and stops them from living with their spouses and children.'' It appears gratuitously ruthless by forcing Israelis who wish to marry Palestinians to single out between their loved ones and their firesides It will be difficult, if not impossible, to build peace immediately after a foundation such as this.

( Aug. 6)

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