Mr Bush goes to Jerusalem

: Seven years after taking office, US President George W. Bush is making his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. But if he does not bring with him a serious plan for concluding a full peace agreement by the end of his term next year, he might as well stay home... Bush knows full well that if a peace agreement is not achieved in 2008, it won’t be done in 2009 and perhaps for a very long time afterward. This is because of the political timetable in both the Palestinian Authority and the US.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will complete his term in January 2009 and has already announced he will not seek another term; no one knows who will replace him and whether his successor will share the same commitment to peace. In the meantime, no matter who the next American president will be, he or she will not hurry to engage in this very sensitive region, which has proved such a disappointment to previous administrations.

Bush’s years in the White House were difficult years for the Middle East... Former prime minister Ariel Sharon did not believe in negotiations with the Palestinians, and he succeeded in convincing Bush that Arafat was another Osama bin Laden and that boycotting him was part of the war against terror. For their part, the Palestinians did their fair share as well, refusing to cooperate with any attempt to calm the area.

Such a plan would be the setting up of a regional headquarters charged with dealing with all aspects of the process during the next 12 months. This American headquarters for peace would deal with the security and military aspects, helping primarily to build up a Palestinian security mechanism; monitor the two sides’ implementation of their commitments on the ground (including the settlement freeze and the struggle against the armed militias); and ensure the continuity of the diplomatic negotiations while presenting bridging proposals, if necessary.

... contd.