Bush's new investment
IF HE meant what he said at his news conference Friday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush has committed himself to forging a Middle East peace. "I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state, and I intend to use the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state," Bush pledged.
If Bush follows through, he may not only save Israeli and Palestinian lives, but help resolve a conflict that nourishes extremism in the Mideast and many other parts of the world.
But making peace in the Mideast will not be easy. It will take a willingness to put aside the unilateralism of Bush's first term. So it is a good sign that Bush spoke of cooperating with others in the quartet that sponsored the road map to Mideast peace: the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations.
Only Washington, however, is capable of shepherding Israelis and Palestinians into the final-status agreement that both peoples need and must eventually reach. Only America among the quartet members is trusted by Israelis to understand their genuine security concerns. And Palestinians eager to negotiate an end of their conflict with Israel also recognize that Americans are the indispensable go-betweens for such a historic agreement.
Bush and Blair correctly stressed assistance for Palestinian efforts to replace the one-man system of rule Yasser Arafat leaves behind. Bush promised international help to "revive the Palestinian economy, to build up the Palestinian security institutions to fight terror, to help the Palestinian government fight corruption, and to reform the Palestinian political system." These goals are all worthwhile and necessary, but pragmatic Palestinians will have little chance of being elected and achieving democratic reform unless they are helped in meaningful ways by Israel.
If Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or Bush were to openly embrace moderate figures such as Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO head expected to run for president of the Palestinian Authority, the gesture would likely boomerang. But Israel could release Palestinian tax revenues to Abbas. Sharon could enhance the moderates' stature by removing many of the 200 checkpoints that make daily life unbearable for Palestinian families. And Palestinian detainees who did not commit serious crimes could be released.
Bush has announced his expectations for Palestinian reform. To keep his peacemaking promise, he will have to make it known that Israel also has expectations to meet. He will have to tell Sharon that to sustain a Palestinian partner for peace, he must stop settlement expansion in the West Bank and halt targeted killings of terrorist suspects. That's what it means for a US president to spend political capital in the Mideast.
