Soccer Dad

Not succeeding ...?

As I laid out yesterday, I believe that President Bush is a far superior candidate to John Kerry when it comes to Israel.
(Note: Roger L. Simon and Michael Totten - substituting for Instapundit - sieze on a comment by Kerry foreign policy guru Richard Holbrooke to make the same point a bit more succinctly.)
However, that doesn't mean that Bush's approach has been without fault. Daniel Mandel author of "Try, Try, Try Again: Bush's Peace Plans" in the Middle East Quarterly, though, lays out a critical reading of the administration's changing approaches to the Middle East. Mandel concludes

By endorsing the Sharon disengagement plan, the Bush administration has accepted the Israeli assessment that "there is no partner," and has aligned itself with Israeli unilateralism. This is true even if U.S. officials announce that the plan is really part of the roadmap, and that it does not prejudge final outcomes. (In fact, Israeli unilateralism is the antithesis of the roadmap, and the disengagement plan and security barrier could affect final outcomes.)

At the same time, it remains a goal of U.S. policy to renew diplomacy with a new and different Palestinian leadership, should it emerge. Even as the United States supports Israeli disengagement, it should take measures to encourage the emergence of a Palestinian leadership committed to peace. Such measures should consist of the following elements:

Insistence on verifiable Palestinian compliance on fighting terror and ending incitement, which alone can afford the evidence that the necessary change of heart has occurred, if and when it does. This could permit the consummation of a genuine peace agreement at some future date.

Working with U.S. allies to endorse the U.S. position that the resettlement of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, largely in a future Palestinian state or territory earmarked for this purpose, is an essential element for concluding an eventual peace. The "right of return" is at the heart of Palestinian rejection of peace, and indulging it ensures the failure of peace efforts. When a political climate is created that renders this demand unsustainable, the Palestinians will be that much closer to abandoning their war aim: the disappearance of Israel. This demand has subverted every past peace effort of recent years; its removal is a prerequisite for genuine progress on the road to peace.

Intensifying and prioritizing diplomacy aimed at Arab states, insisting that they dismantle terror groups and stem the flow of recruits, funds, and weaponry to terrorists. There is little doubt that a region that tolerates and abets terrorism is unlikely to see the end of it. Without its end, no peace process stands a chance of success.

Publishing periodic reports on Palestinian violations in the realm of security, and candidly basing U.S. policy on the findings. By continuing to suppress evidence of violations, Washington communicates to the world, not least to the terrorists themselves, that it lacks seriousness of purpose in bringing the post-Oslo reign of terror to a close. By its reticence to tell the full truth about Palestinian violations, the United States has subverted the attainment of its own objectives. It sometimes happens that policy is not entirely consistent, but downplaying Palestinian violations is practically schizophrenic, and must be remedied.

All these steps could have been taken with advantage long ago. The failure to do so has had deleterious results. Hopefully these steps, taken today, will produce a different situation in one, two, or five years—one in which U.S. officials will not need to urge the dismantling of terror groups, counsel restraint in the face of the latest outrage, or urge recommitment to yet another plan offering phased panaceas. This is the cycle that must be broken.

Well said. And I can't argue with it. Still, for whatever faults there have been in the Bush adminstration's handling of the Israeli-Arab conflict, the most important step taken by President Bush was to sideline Arafat reversing the effects of eight years of deodorizing the thug. It was a necessary, though not sufficient, action to make peace possible.

Holbrooke's quote suggests that there is a real danger that a Kerry administration would reverse Arafat's isolation.
Crossposted in Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 26, 2004 12:16 AM