Perspective: Is Bush ready for real diplomacy?

McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Published Monday, January 22, 2007

The following editorial appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Thursday, Jan. 18:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week made her third trip in three months to the Middle East. She had no proposals to make but wanted to hear the views of leaders in the region. What she seemed to want most was their support for President Bush's latest plan to pacify and stabilize Iraq.

What she heard about the Iraq plan behind closed doors is unclear, but publicly Arab leaders were reserved at best. What she heard a lot about, however, was Washington's need to do more to break the impasse between Israel and the Palestinians.

In response, Rice said she "heard loud and clear" Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call for deeper American engagement -- and "you have my commitment to do precisely that." Later she said she will soon meet with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "to have discussions about the broad issues on the horizon." That's pretty vague.

If the meeting takes place, how hard will Rice push Abbas and Olmert? And how much is either ready to do to revive talks? Abbas wants to leapfrog the "road map" -- a detailed process backed by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations to lay the ground for final-status negotiations in the future -- and move straight to the big issues: the border between Israel and a Palestinian state, the status of Palestinian refugees and of Jerusalem.

Will Olmert agree? If he does, could he sell the idea to his colleagues in a coalition that's weak and unpopular?

Complicating matters is that the United States and Israel refuse to deal with Hamas, the militant, Iranian-backed Palestinian faction that won parliamentary elections a year ago but refuses to renounce violence or to recognize Israel's right to exist. That's one thing that has prevented Hamas and Abbas, who heads the Fatah Party, from working together.

The odds against a successful resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks are thus long. Nor is it clear whether the administration's sudden willingness to get back into this fray is genuine or a bid to win points in the Arab world, whose leaders say an independent Palestine is a prerequisite for a larger Middle East settlement.

As if all that weren't enough, lurking in the background is the mutual hostility between the administration and the Iranian government, an implacable enemy of Israel and, seemingly, the United States. Bush further stoked that fire in his speech on Iraq, denouncing Iran as the greatest threat to regional peace and sounding a warning that some in Washington interpret as a prelude to U.S. action against Iran. The White House's denials have not reassured critics.

If Bush is serious about reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, he must show that he's willing to be an honest broker rather than a rubber stamp for Israeli policy.

Getting Hamas to renounce its vow to destroy Israel is a major challenge. So is the U.S. attempt to build a coalition against Iran in a region whose leaders are leery of anything they see as threatening further destabilization.

Here's hoping that Rice's proposed get-together between Olmert and Abbas is more than a superficial gesture. Peace between Israel and a new Palestine is long overdue. It would not guarantee a broader regional peace, but it's an indispensable part of any such scenario.