“UNFINISHED BUSINESS”: Bush and Palestine

Left: U.S. President George W. Bush
Right: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

This week the Bush Administration is revisiting the Israel/Palestine conflict with back-to-back meetings with the Middle East heads of state — Mubarak of Egypt, Sharon of Israel, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Jordan. It’s about time!

Bush has been preoccupied — many would now say obsessed — with Iraq ever since the buildup to the war and the current chaotic occupation. His Road Map to peace died of neglect in the process, and the popular Geneva Accord has barely registered on the administration’s radar screen, to the dismay of American scholars and patriots.

And you can almost hear the chorus of voices out of the Middle East screaming in unison: “It’s the Palestinian problem, stupid!”

But this week the subject is front and center at the White House, for better or worse. Ariel Sharon has pressed the issue with his plan to abandon the Gaza Strip and to close down 21 small settlements in the area and four isolated smaller settlements in the West Bank, out of a total of 140. This is the first move in his disengagement plan, and it is on a collision course with the Road Map. Sharon’s plan is a transparent attempt to do what he has always done best: Sabotage the Road Map piece by piece, while claiming to be working for its success. It is time for President Bush to say no!

Sharon knows very well that the Road Map calls for the removal of all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as part of final negotiations. Yet his disengagement plan calls for the retention of five large settlement blocs within the West Bank (Ariel, Givat Zeev, Maaleh Adumim, Etzion, and Kiryat Arba). Three of these blocs are deep within the territory, and would effectively negate the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian State.

Over the weekend, Sharon visited the largest West Bank settlement, Maaleh Adumim, with over 30,000 inhabitants. He assured then that the permanent settlements would be “strengthened and developed.” These aren’t the words and deeds of a man committed to the Road Map. These are the words of a man committed to killing it.

When asked recently when he expected to begin his disengagement, Sharon answered, “I hope that next Passover we will be in the middle of the plan.” This is vintage Sharon: Between now and next Passover he will find a thousand reasons to postpone the disengagement. He also said that the five large settlement blocs will “… be here for all eternity,” and will be off the negotiation table.

It’s time for Americans to stand up to Sharon and say “Enough!”

This past Monday, Hosni Mubarak visited Bush at his ranch to discuss Sharon’s plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip. With the occupation in Iraq getting bloodier and more unstable by the week, Bush is desperate to attach himself to something positive in the Middle East — or so Sharon is gambling. He wants Mubarak’s assurances that once the Israeli Defense Forces pull out of Gaze, the Egyptians will shut off the flow of weapons across their border with the Gaza Strip, and generally discourage Hamas from gaining any more power. That seems like wishful thinking, because Hamas just conducted a fund-raising campaign in the poor streets of Gaze and came up with over a million dollars. This is something the Palestinian Authority could never accomplish, as its support among average Palestinians continues to evaporate.

Mubarak knows who butters his bread. (The United States has provided about 50 billion dollars in aid to Egypt since they made peace with Israel in 1978.) He made vague assurances to Bush and gave conditional support to the Gaze pullout, as long as it is compatible with the Road Map — which he knows it is not. But he mainly wanted to tell Bush how inflamed the entire region is over the occupation of Iraq.

Next week, Jordan’s King Abdullah comes to visit. But the big fish is this week’s visit by Sharon. This is “put-up-or-shut-up” time for Bush. Sharon’s disengagement plan is clearly beyond the framework of the Road Map. In fact, Sharon has stated many times that it represents his response to the failure — the death certificate — of the Bush Road Map. He blames the failure on the Palestinian Authority for failing to jump through the “confidence-building” hoops dangled in front of them.

President Bush should tell Sharon that his disengagement plan is an assault on the Road Map, the plan Sharon pledged to support. And Bush should tell him that he would use the full power of the presidency to convince Congress to cut off aid to Israel if Sharon moves ahead with his plans to thwart an independent Palestinian State.

But indications are that Bush will give tentative approval to Sharon’s plan, once again kicking the hard decisions and difficult compromises down the road. An appeasement of this kind will translate into nothing but trouble for the Bush Administration. It will be seen as another American capitulation to Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. It will be seen as more evidence that Bush is long on talk and short on leadership, backbone, and inspiration.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said that Sharon’s plan will destroy the peace process — this from a man known as a career optimist.

In the troubled streets of Gaza City, the refugee camps, and other Palestinian communities, the Iraqi insurgents fighting American Marines now have wide support. This is how everything in the Middle East is connected. And this is what Bush and his advisors still don’t understand.

Actions produce reactions, and memories are long in this part of the world. Just today, a plot to blow up a new Holocaust Memorial in Budapest was uncovered by Hungarian police. Israeli President Moshe Katsav arrived in Budapest today for the dedication of the museum, but it remains unclear whether or not the plot also involved an assassination attempt. The Hungarian police have suggested that the plot was in retaliation for Israel’s March 22 assassination of Hamas spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Khaled Mashaal, Yassin’s successor, has said that all Palestinians are duty bound to kill Sharon in revenge. The bloody cycle continues.

Anti-American feelings in the Middle East have a history that goes back many years. The main objection has always been that America is completely pro-Israel instead of being pro-peace. Our support for Israel has always been unconditional, while our support for Palestine has always been lacking. This is why so many people in the Middle East hate us.

From the very beginning of the Bush Administration, veteran diplomats who understood the Middle East told him that the single most important issue threatening our national-security needs in the region was the Palestinian question. It had festered for far too long, and it had become the primary focus for anti-American sentiments. The president needed to use the full moral authority of the presidency to ensure equal respect and deference for everyone involved in the conflict, especially the Palestinians.

The president, they said, had to get personally involved, as Carter did to achieve the historic 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel. Sending special envoys back and forth across the Atlantic would not do it. If the newly elected president didn’t fix this problem first, they said, nothing else he did in the Middle East would matter.

Bush didn’t listen. He decided to declare war on Iraq instead.

What happens after this week’s visit? If Bush caves in, then Sharon will have his Likud Party vote on the disengagement plan, which now enjoys the support of a slight majority of party members. If it passes, then he will present it to his Cabinet, and then to the Knesset. If it fails the Likud referendum, it will represent a stinging defeat for the combative Prime Minister. Such a vote of no confidence, and the possible indictment hanging over him, could topple his government. But Sharon has survived many other self-inflicted wounds, only to rise up again. He has survived while many U.S. presidents have come and gone. Whether this legacy ends up being a blessing or a curse for Israel, only time will tell. What we do know is that Sharon represents the primary obstacle to the realization of Palestinian dreams and lasting peace between the two neighbors.

It is time for us to stand up for our principles and demand that Israel bargains in good faith, and works with us to find a just solution, either through the Bush Road Map or the Geneva Accord. No more detours, no more stonewalling, no more excuses! We have the ability — the moral imperative — to oppose the powerful Israeli lobby that has for too long dictated our slanted policies in the Middle East. It’s time for us to become the true champions of peace. It’s time to stand up for the Palestinians.