| Author | Message | | sharkman | | Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2002 7:41 am Post subject: bush urges immediate work on palestinian state |
| http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=303540
Where the Buck Stops
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
n May 1948 President Harry Truman faced one of the most excruciating decisions of his presidency: whether to extend U.S. recognition to a newly declared Jewish state in Palestine, a recognition that was sure to complicate U.S. interests in the Arab world. What made the decision even more difficult was the fact that the president's two smartest advisers disagreed, and were passionately pulling him in opposite directions. Mr. Truman's secretary of state, Gen. George C. Marshall, strongly opposed recognizing Israel. But the president's most trusted political adviser, Clark Clifford, argued forcefully in favor of creating a Jewish homeland.
After much deliberation, Mr. Truman, the president who kept a plaque reading "The Buck Stops Here" on his desk, realized that he could not rely on his advisers. He had to go with what was in his own gut. He opted to recognize Israel.
Today offers us a somewhat analogous moment, only now the issue is whether President Bush should help create a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state. And this time the general-turned-secretary-of-state, Colin Powell, is in favor. The State Department argues that ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is vital for turning back the anti-American tide in the Arab-Muslim world, for preparing the groundwork for any attack on Iraq and for securing Israel's long-term future. It is good policy and good politics, say Powell aides, because the vast majority of Americans and American Jews (no matter what so-called Jewish leaders say) want to see this conflict resolved, provided Israel is treated fairly.
And this time around the president's trusted political adviser, Karl Rove, and defense secretary, Don Rumsfeld, are against any high-profile U.S. initiative, arguing that Yasir Arafat is just another terrorist, and that the real key to turning back anti-Americanism in the Middle East is changing the regime in Iraq. In a region where raw power is revered above all else, they argue, that's what would really secure U.S. strategic interests. It is good policy, they insist, and good politics, because Mr. Bush's Republican bases in the Christian and Jewish right don't want to see Israel pressured in any way to make a deal.
Mr. Bush signaled Friday that he intends to speak out on this issue as soon as he finishes his consultations with Arab and Israeli leaders. I hope he sides clearly with Mr. Powell. Mr. Bush and his aides are very good at smashing things, but so far they've shown little ability to build anything abroad — because they don't want to get deeply involved anywhere for very long. A president should be prudent about foreign commitments. But diving in sometimes is the only way to create a stable status quo.
For months, Mr. Bush and Ariel Sharon have been looking for a stable status quo to emerge from the burning Mideast landscape. It is not going to happen. You will not get a stable status quo on the cheap. You will get it only by the U.S. president laying out a vision that restores hope and makes it very clear what we think the endgame should look like — although the parties themselves will have to negotiate the details. That vision should include the rollback of most Israeli settlements; a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem by refugees returning to the West Bank and Gaza, not Israel; and a repartition of Jerusalem, with Jews controlling Jewish neighborhoods and Arabs controlling Arab ones.
But once we create that light, we need to construct a tunnel that will involve a serious transition phase, carefully monitored by the U.S., with clear performance requirements. As Aaron Miller, a senior State Department adviser, observed in a recent speech: In 1993, with the Oslo Accords, we created a tunnel of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, but no consensus on the light at the end of it. Now, is the time for America to create both the light and a new tunnel, since the old one has been destroyed.
The right way to shrink, or eliminate, Mr. Arafat is for Palestinians to do it themselves, and the only way they are going to do it is if they see him standing in the way of a real opportunity. And if the Arabs don't like Mr. Sharon, they need to grow up, reach out to Israel and create a real incentive for Israelis to want to go around him.
This is Mr. Bush's Truman moment. He has a chance not only to give birth to the Palestinian state, but to do it in a way that wins Israel the recognition it really needs — not from the U.S., but from all its neighbors.
The buck stops here.
Bush Urges Immediate Work on Palestinian State
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, June 8 — President Bush said today that the United States must start working immediately with Israelis and Palestinians toward establishing a Palestinian state in the Middle East, and that time was of the essence.
But despite the urgency in his remarks, Mr. Bush also said that the United States was not yet prepared to recommend a timetable for the state's creation.
"We are not ready to lay down a specific calendar except for the fact that we've got to get started quickly, soon, so we can seize the moment," Mr. Bush said in a joint outdoor news conference this morning at Camp David with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Mr. Bush's remarks stopped short of the hopes of Mr. Mubarak, who in a lengthy opening statement today called for "an agreed time frame" that would lead to the establishment of a state that Mr. Bush now refers to as Palestine. In an interview in Cairo earlier this week, Mr. Mubarak said he would press Mr. Bush to support the declaration of a Palestinian state early next year.
"I don't think that violence will come to an end unless the people feel that there is hope for peace and there is something to show that peace is coming," Mr. Mubarak said, standing next to Mr. Bush under a canopy of oak and walnut trees outside Holly Cabin, one of the guest lodges at the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. "If they didn't feel that, they will not stop the violence. It will continue forever."
But Mr. Bush, who is to meet on Monday at the White House with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, said that before a deadline for a state could be set, "we need to start immediately in building the institutions necessary for the emergence of a Palestinian state, which on the one hand will give hope to the Palestinian people, and on the other hand say to the world, including the neighborhood, that there is a chance to live in peace, to defeat terror."
Later, a senior administration official at Camp David said that Mr. Bush "is still listening" to Mr. Mubarak's request for a timetable.
The two leaders also offered differing views of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, whose compound was once again attacked this week by Israeli forces.
"Look, we should give this man a chance," Mr. Mubarak said. "We are working very hard with the United States for reform within the Palestinian Authority. Such a chance will prove whether he's going to deliver or not."
But Mr. Bush distanced the United States yet again from Mr. Arafat and spoke of the need to reach out to newer Palestinian leaders.
"Chairman Arafat, as far as I'm concerned, is not the issue," Mr. Bush said. "The issue is whether the Palestinian people can have a hopeful future. I have constantly said I am dissatisfied in his leadership. He has let the Palestinian people down."
Mr. Bush added: "I also happen to believe that there is plenty of talent among the Palestinians and that if we develop the institutions necessary for the development of a state, that talent will emerge. The issue's bigger than one person."
Mr. Mubarak praised Mr. Bush for the American commitment to the Middle East and what he called the American vision for the region, but indicated that he expected a stepped-up involvement. "We look forward to a strong American engagement in the coming phase to implement this vision," Mr. Mubarak said. The Bush administration had avoided extensive involvement in the Middle East peace efforts until late last year.
Mr. Mubarak's comments came as administration officials said they were leaning toward a new policy statement for final peace in the Middle East. But the White House has kept all details exceptionally vague, and Mr. Bush has said he will make no announcements until after he consults on Monday with Mr. Sharon.
"After my meetings with President Mubarak and Prime Minister Sharon, I'll talk to our country about how I think we should move forward," Mr. Bush said on Friday. He added, "I don't know if it'll be a speech. Maybe a discussion. Could be a paper. I haven't decided the forum."
Mr. Mubarak, who is eager to resume an important position in the Middle East peace efforts, has persistently pressed the White House for an American-led peace plan, saying that was the only way to stop the violence.
In an interview in Cairo this week, Mr. Mubarak also characterized his proposal as fresher and more detailed than a peace plan put forward in March by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Under that proposal, Israel would withdraw from all territory seized in the 1967 war in exchange for full normalization of relations with Arab nations.
The meeting of the American and Egyptian presidents occurred in the aftermath of the latest Israeli attack on Mr. Arafat's compound in Ramallah. In a reprisal for a suicide bombing on Wednesday by Islamic Jihad that killed 17 Israelis on a bus, Israeli forces sent a tank shell through Mr. Arafat's bedroom, killed two people and left a half-dozen buildings in ruins. The United States was not notified in advance of the raids.
Early today, Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement in the West Bank while the residents were sleeping. The attack killed a pregnant woman and her husband and another Israeli. One attacker was killed and a second escaped.
In another incident, two armed men were shot dead while they were swimming in the Mediterranean near the coastal settlement of Dugit, the army said. The body of one washed ashore. They were both carrying automatic rifles and grenades, the army said. Also, two Palestinians carrying bombs were killed in an explosion at the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, the army said.
Within a day or two, Mr. Arafat is expected to make changes in his cabinet, one minister, Nabil Shaath, said. Mr. Arafat is under international pressure to overhaul his administration and improve security. Palestinian officials say he is likely to reduce his cabinet to about 19 members from 32, and to bring in new faces.
Senior Bush administration officials said the latest outbreaks of violence would not stop them from moving forward with a peace plan. Officials are also reaching out to other Palestinian leaders in an attempt to overhaul the Palestinian Authority from within.
On Friday, Mr. Arafat called for a halt to the Israeli attacks. "I am addressing this appeal to the whole international world to stop this fascism, this Nazism, this dirty work against our people," he said.
Mr. Mubarak had dinner with Mr. Bush at Camp David on Friday night, where the two leaders met with a small group and discussed the Egyptian president's proposals more informally than in their meetings this morning. Participants at the dinner included Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser; Stephen J. Hadley, the deputy national security adviser; and Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff.
Mr. Mubarak stayed overnight on Friday at Camp David.
This morning Mr. Bush and Mr. Mubarak were joined in their meetings by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns and George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence. | |  | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
