washington | Americans wanting a peek at President Bush’s to-do list didn’t get much substance from his first post-election news speech, except for this: a Palestinian state.
Bush’s thrice-repeated insistence on Palestinian statehood in a short press conference otherwise brimming with vague platitudes suggests a determination that Israel’s government would do well to heed.
“I think it’s very important for our friends the Israelis to have a peaceful Palestinian state living on their border,” Bush said in the first of his mentions in his Nov. 4 press conference.
If anyone had any doubts, he noted that he has espoused Palestinian statehood for two years, since his June 24, 2002, speech outlining the conditions for Middle East peace.
Also significant was his agreement with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Israeli-Palestinian peace was a centerpiece of stability in the region.
That contradicts a central doctrine of the president’s first term: The road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad — in other words, creating a stable democratic regime in Iraq would have a spillover effect on the Palestinians.
With a major battle under way to retake the insurgent-filled Iraqi city of Fallujah, President Bush will be seeking all the support he can get from Europeans and from neighboring Arab states.
“Our numbers are down significantly in that part of the world,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which tracks U.S. approval ratings in the Arab world. “I fear that absent a dramatic change in how we approach the region, the problems will remain.”
Blair wants a summit on the issue as soon as possible, and White House aides have suggested that it will be high on the agenda when he and Bush meet in Washington later this week.
But Bush’s commitment to Israel’s security and his friendship with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is unwavering, those close to him say. Central to this is his conviction that he cannot ask of other nations what he does not ask of the United States: As long as the United States does not truck with terrorists, nor should Israel, is his credo.
However, that equation could change, U.S, officials make clear, with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s departure from power.
Asked Nov. 5 how Arafat’s declining health impacted U.S. peacemaking, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher dangled the prospect of a Palestinian state.
“The president is committed to his two-state vision that he enunciated two years ago, trying to achieve a democratic and peaceful Palestinian state that can live side by side with Israel,” Boucher said.
Bush’s recent emphasis on Palestinian statehood was prompted in part by pre-election remarks by Sharon’s top adviser, Dov Weisglass, who told Ha’aretz that Sharon’s plan to unilaterally leave the Gaza Strip would satisfy the Americans for now and would quash the prospect of statehood until the Palestinians have a more reliable leadership.
Bush administration officials were furious over the remarks, and Sharon quickly backtracked. Now that the election has passed, the administration is making it clear that it wants the Gaza pullout to go ahead.
“We see the Israeli disengagement plan from Gaza and from some of the settlements on the West Bank as being a step that can lead us in that direction,” said Boucher, the State Department spokesman.
If it shows signs of movement, such a step-by-step approach might help Bush forge the alliances he needs in the region to assert control in Iraq and to roll back the growing influence of Iran.