On Bush's Mideast vision

After months of consultations with Middle East leaders, U.S. President George W. Bush is expected this week to unveil his vision for defusing long-running tensions in the area. If the U.S. officials' recent statements, including Bush's, are any guide, then little can be expected from the American president's coming speech on the Middle East.

Bush himself has made no bones about his support for Israel's incessant and devastating attacks on the Palestinians. In late March when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered a massive and bloody incursion into the West Bank and the blockade of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Bush reacted coolly (to put it mildly), labeling the Israeli practices as "taken in self- defense." He renewed the same posture last week during talks with Sharon.

These lopsided stances apart, for Bush's plan to save the day for the volatile Middle East, it must be long in substance and very short in generalities. For instance, he must provide a timetable for the creation of the Palestinian state. Now that he has got firsthand accounts of the Middle East scene, Bush would do better if he showed impartiality and a sense of balance, ingredients hitherto missing in the American formula.

-- Egyptian Gazette, Cairo