PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI ROAD MAP ‘NEWS’: Read all about it! Read all about it! In the Rose Garden yesterday (March 14), the Prez promised that as soon as Abu Mazen is confirmed as Palestinian Prime Minister, “the road map for peace will be given to the Palestinians and Israelis.” And then, “Once this road map is delivered, we will expect and welcome contributions from Israel and the Palestinians that will advance true peace.”
This is news??? The road map was actually given to the Palestinians and Israelis already– as long ago as last October. Giving it to them is not the issue. The issue– as between the US and all three of its allies in the diplomatic “Quartet” responsible for this process– is whether the Quartet will allow any further revisions to it by Israel’s Ariel Sharon.
The Palestinian leadership, including Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister-designate Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), has already agreed to the road maps’s terms. (Whether wisely or not, given the RM’s long-drawn-out and inconclusive nature, is another matter.)
Sharon has not agreed to it. He has sought since October to delay and prevaricate with regard to the RM, while he’s sought to have further revisions made to what everyone else– except the Bush administration– considers to be an already finalized text.
The Quartet, you’ll remember, consists of the US, the UN, the EU, and Russia. The other three ain’t chopped liver. The Quartet was formed almost exactly one year ago, shortly after Bush called– last April 4– for the Israeli government (then also led by Sharton) to “withdraw immediately” from those parts of the occupied territories that had been handed over to Palestinian security control under the Oslo Accords.
Well, the Israelis did not “withdraw immediately”. Far from it. Bush lost a lot of credibility in the Arab world and Europe for his failure to insist that the huge wads of US taxpayer $$ that are handed over to Israel on a daily basis could not even be used to get Israel to do that one small thing. So to shore up his diplomacy (and dilute the criticism) Bush agreed to join this thing called the Quartet.
But he still wants to be the one who calls all the shots, evidently, by unilaterally redefining the progress and pace of the Quartet’s work. As he did in yesterday’s announcement.
Bush made the announcement in the last hours of his preparations to leave for the Azores, where he’s holding a last-minute war-preparation “summit” with the leaders of existing Security Council allies Britain and Spain. (What about Bulgaria, I hear you say?? Well, “new Europe” may be all very fine as a stick to beat those Frenchies with. But this Azores summit is, hem-hem, serious business.)
For starters, meeting with people who already agree with you does not count as “going the extra mile for diplomacy”… But that aside, the announcement about the Palestinian-Israeli RM was clearly made to try to placate Britain’s Tony Blair who’s been pressing Dubya for progress on the RM issue for many months now.
It remains to be seen– in the few hours we have left before the pro-war Trio Con Brio reach whatever decision they come to in the Azores– whether Blair and his domestic critics will actually conclude that Bush’s statement committed him to anything meaningful in Arab-Israeli peacemaking. London’s Independent reported that skeptical Blair cabinet member Clare Short said she was “delighted” about Bush’s announcement, and she was having second thoughts about her previous threat to resign.
The Independent’s own editorial today acknowledged the “cynical” quality of the timing of Bush’s announcement, but said it was nonetheless a welcome sign of US re-rengagement. “If the road map … proves the basis for restarting negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, then it matters,” the editorial said. I agree totally with that. But I just think the conditional clause there does not yet show any realistic signs of coming about.
What Bush did not mention: “Israeli forces shot dead 5 Palestinian militants in the city of Jenin today, bringing to 10 the number of Palestinians killed in the northern West Bank in less than 24 hours.” — New York Times, p. A6.
Did I mention that Bush opened his remarks by saying, “We have reached a hopeful moment for progress toward the vision of Middle Eastern peace… ” What planet was that that he’s coming from?