We’re wondering what President Bush had in mind when he agreed to meet last week with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and this week with Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
It’s unclear what, if anything, was accomplished by the meetings.
From our perspective, the president should have pushed both leaders for more concessions.
He should have demanded that Abbas arrest terrorists and destroy their weapons, as the “road map” calls for. And he should have insisted that Sharon stop building the security fence as long as the cease-fire lasts — and also remove the settlement outposts, as the road map requires.
Bush’s failure to call for immediately compliance with a road map his administration wrote makes no sense. Certainly he has the power to make such demands
What he did do is agree to give Abbas $20 million to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians. But what is the United States getting in return? Why couldn’t Bush say the money won’t be forthcoming until terrorists are apprehended?
Perhaps Bush could have wrung greater concessions from Abbas had he been harder on Sharon. Certainly the millions of dollars we give Israel every year gives us some influence there.
We agree with Sharon that no prisoners with blood on their hands should be freed. But we have problems with Sharon’s poor record of removing settlement outposts. The army destroys them one day, and the settlers erect a new one a mile down the road the next.
Israel’s government needs to do more to put an end to the outposts, most of which Sharon admits have been built illegally.
At the same time, we urge Sharon to put a temporary halt in building the contentious fence separating Israelis from West Bank Arab towns. As long as the cease-fire holds, Israel should avoid taking any steps that aggravate a potentially volatile situation.
We call on Bush to enforce his road map and move the Mideast a step closer to peace.