Bush should wait out Middle East deadlock: Analyst<\/p>\n
Barry Schweid,
\nAssociated Press\/Washington<\/p>\n
Apart from President George W. Bush's reassurances of unwavering
\nsupport for Palestinian statehood, there is little his
\nadministration is set to do in the short term to try to break the
\nMiddle East deadlock.<\/p>\n
Administration strategists, wrestling with one of the biggest
\ninternational problems Bush will face in his next four years in
\noffice, seem convinced that serious progress toward that goal is
\ngoing to take some time.<\/p>\n
First off, they must wait out Yasser Arafat's possibly
\nterminal illness and then gauge whether his successors can
\nmaintain calm and provide Israel with a partner for negotiations.<\/p>\n
Second, the most promising opening for peacemaking -- Israeli
\nPrime Minister Ariel Sharon's projected withdrawal from Gaza and
\npart of the West Bank -- is not due to begin until next year. The
\nplan also requires final approval by the Israeli government.<\/p>\n
Palestinian groups that have leveled deadly attacks on Israeli
\ncivilians could sabotage that opening, and it will take time to
\nknow whether new Palestinian leaders will handcuff them.<\/p>\n
Both Bush and Sharon are loath to start negotiations amid
\nviolence.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made
\nclear on Friday that the U.S.-backed \"road map,\" and not some new
\napproach, remains the administration's vehicle for getting to the
\npeace table.<\/p>\n
\"The kind of steps that have been identified to get there are
\nthe steps that we will continue to encourage,\" he said.<\/p>\n
These include demands that violent groups be controlled,
\nIsraeli outposts be removed from the West Bank and Israeli
\nsettlement activity be suspended.<\/p>\n
As American strategists consider their moves, Bush is coming
\nunder increased pressure from European allies to assume a more
\naggressive posture.<\/p>\n
After speaking with Bush by telephone on Wednesday, British
\nPrime Minister Tony Blair, the president's closest ally in Iraq,
\nsaid working toward Israeli-Palestinian peace was \"the single
\nmost pressing political challenge in our world today.\"<\/p>\n
\"Therefore, we must be relentless in our war against terrorism
\nand in resolving the conditions and causes on which the
\nterrorists prey,\" Blair said. \"We should work with President Bush
\non this agenda. It is one which all nations of goodwill would
\nsurely agree.\"<\/p>\n
Richard N. Haass, who headed the State Department's policy
\nplanning office for more than two years of Bush's first term,
\nsaid on Friday that \"you need a Palestinian partner to make
\nIsrael comfortable with the withdrawal and to make it work.\"<\/p>\n
Haass said Bush should send a letter to the Palestinians with
\nassurances of support on a number of tough issues, including that
\nthe Israeli-held territory that would become a Palestinian state
\nwould be contiguous, and there should be compensation in money or
\nterritory for not resettling Palestinian refugees in Israel.<\/p>\n
The letter would parallel the one Bush gave Sharon earlier in
\nthe year in which the president supported Israel's retention of
\nJewish settlements near its border and rejected Palestinian
\nclaims that refugees have a right to return to Israel.<\/p>\n
Haass, who also directed Middle East policy at the National
\nSecurity Council for the first President Bush, said he would not
\nrecommend this president take a position on Jerusalem's future.<\/p>\n
Relative calm has prevailed during Arafat's illness as the
\nPalestinians set up a sort of cooperative structure keyed to
\nMahmoud Abbas, known popularly as Abu Mazen, and Ahmed Qurie,
\nfamiliarly known as Abu Ala.<\/p>\n
The Bush administration hopes the calm they have been able to
\nmaintain will continue, a senior U.S. official said. And,
\nspeaking on condition of anonymity, he said the administration
\nalso hoped that fledgling Palestinian government institutions
\nwould develop.<\/p>\n
On the Israeli side, officials said there are some 50 terror
\nalerts a day, and the relative calm is due to interception by
\nIsraeli forces of would-be attackers.<\/p>\n
James Phillips, Middle East specialist at the Heritage
\nFoundation, said Arafat has \"really poisoned the atmosphere for
\nprospective peace talks, promising so many things and failing to
\ndeliver so often, he eroded Israeli trust in a Palestinian
\nnegotiating partner.\"<\/p>\n
\"Hopefully, after he passes from the scene the Palestinians
\ncan develop a more constructive approach than Arafat's disastrous
\nstrategy,\" Phillips said in an interview.<\/p>\n
The onus for reviving the stalled peace process should be on
\nthe Palestinians and not on the United States, he said.<\/p>\n
Edward S. Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and
\nIsrael, said the first step the administration should take is to
\nsend an emissary to Arafat's funeral and while in the area to
\nsound out Abbas and Qurie to \"take the pulse\" and also to talk to
\nSharon in Israel.<\/p>\n
Also, Walker, now president of the Middle East Institute in
\nWashington, said in an interview, the so-called Quartet that
\nproduced the road map for peacemaking -- the United States,
\nUnited Nations, European Union and Russia -- should meet to
\nreinvigorate the blueprint and show that it is still alive.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bush-should-wait-out-middle-east-deadlock-analyst-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}