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Journalism of Courage
At first, I thought I8217;d write a column that just ripped President Bush for declaring that the United States8212;after decades of neutrality8212;has decided to oppose the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel as part of any final peace settlement. Why is the President dragging America into the middle of this most sensitive Israeli-Palestinian issue? You8217;re telling me that just because Ariel Sharon has to persuade the right-wing lunatics in his Cabinet to undo the lunatic settlement mess that Sharon himself created, America has to pay for it with its own standing in the Arab world?
And while I was at it, I also thought I8217;d write that it is an abomination for Bush to say that Palestinians had to recognise 8216;8216;the new realities on the ground8217;8217; in the West Bank8212;the Israeli settlement blocks8212;without even mentioning that those 8216;8216;new realities8217;8217; were built in defiance of US policy and they have been just devastating to Palestinian civilians.
But after I got all these prospective columns off my chest, I decided what I really wanted to say: I8217;m fed up with the Middle East, or more accurately, I8217;m fed up with the stalemate in the Middle East. All it has produced is death, destruction and endless 8216;8216;he hit me first8217;8217; debates on cable TV. Arabs, Israelis, Americans8212;everyone is sick of it.
So now Bush has stepped in and thrown the whole frozen Middle East chessboard up in the air. I don8217;t like his style, but it8217;s done. The status quo was no better. So, frankly, now I8217;m only interested in three things:
First, will Sharon win the backing of his right-wing coalition for his Gaza withdrawal plan8212;which has set off the biggest ideological split in the Jewish right since Camp David? If Sharon really does split his party and manages to withdraw all Israeli settlements and forces from Gaza, there will only be a far right in Israel and a far left, and a huge centre8212;which is what stable, sane politics requires. Israelis will prove to themselves and to the Arabs that they can, under the right conditions, break the grip of the settlers. The Arabs will never again be able to say: 8216;8216;Why should we do anything? Israel will never leave the settlements anyway.8217;8217; Moreover, Israel will very likely have to form a national unity government8212;of Labor and Likud8212;to pull this off, and only such a coalition could reach a negotiated final peace with the Palestinians.
Second, will the Bush team make sure that Sharon, or his successor, fully withdraws from Gaza as promised? The Bush folks are experts at throwing up chessboards and then leaving the room, with the pieces bouncing all over the floor, and not doing the follow-up see Iraq because it interferes with their domestic political agenda. Having given up real US negotiating assets to get Sharon to move, if Bush turns a blind eye to any Sharon stalling, US interests will be badly damaged.
Finally, if Sharon does pull out of Gaza, the Palestinians will have a chance to reposition themselves in the eyes of Israelis. They will have a chance to build a decent mini-state of their own in Gaza that will prove to Israelis they can live in peace next to Israel. It will be hard and they will need help. Gaza is dirt poor. But if the Palestinians show they an build a decent state, it will do more to persuade Israelis to give up more of the West Bank, or swap land there for parts of Israel, than any Bush statements or Hamas terror. I wish them well, because if they do well, everything will be on the table.
This is a real crisis for all parties. And as Paul Romer, the Stanford economist, remarked to me the other day about a different issue: 8216;8216;A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.8217;8217;
8212; The New York Times
