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Bush must take some
bold action in the region if he wants to salvage his reputation,
wrote two leading U.S. newspapers
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WASHINGTON,
May 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - With postwar Iraq mired
in difficulties and attacks threatening the stability of Middle East,
U.S. President George W. Bush must take some bold action in the region
if he wants to salvage his reputation, two leading U.S. dailies said
Tuesday, May 20.
"Until
Mr. Bush's vision of a Palestinian state alongside Israel is achieved,
one of the grievances that fuels Muslim extremism and terrorism will
blaze on. In short, both strategic U.S. interests and Mr. Bush's
personal credibility are riding on his response to this crisis," The
Washington Post wrote.
Bush
assumed a "personal commitment" to advance an
Israeli-Palestinian settlement, which is seen as "critical to
holding together the tight coalition" Bush built for Iraq and to
wage war on terrorism, the paper editorial said.
The
Post urged Bush to forget "lukewarm demarches" such
as sending his secretary of state to the Middle East, and use his
leverage with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, Ariel
Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, to demand each begin taking action.
"If
Mr. Bush does not make the effort, he will be blamed for another
Israeli-Palestinian breakdown -- and for failing to keep his own
word," charged the Post.
The
daily reported that senior U.S. officials said the administration is
urging Sharon, who canceled his trip to Washington after a weekend of
bombings, to reschedule his U.S. visit for next week.
Bush
is due to leave for a lengthy European trip on May 29, and
administration officials feared that momentum would be lost if the
Sharon visit were delayed until his return.
The
American paper warned that any delay in Bush's meeting with Sharon to
bolster the internationally-backed Mideast "roadmap" peace
plan would risk lessening the president's zeal for pressuring Israel
to make its own moves toward peace.
The
"roadmap" was formally
presented to the two sides on by the United States, the
European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
Although
the new Palestinian government headed by Abbas immediately announced
its acceptance, Israel has balked at a myriad of elements of the
document.
‘Disaster’
The
Post further said that a group of conservative Christian and Jewish
groups released
a letter on Monday, May 19, telling Bush that the road map
"could lead to a disaster."
The
letter, organized by conservative Christian activist Gary Bauer,
claimed that any attempt to be "evenhanded" between
"democratic Israel" and the "terrorist-infested
Palestinian infrastructure" would be "morally
reprehensible."
Although
U.S. officials said a meeting last Saturday night between Sharon and
Abbas was a sign of progress, internal accounts from Israeli and Arab
sources described the talks as frustrating
and inconclusive.
Supporters
of the roadmap peace plan, however, have said that only Bush can force
Sharon to act.
"I
don't think anything is going to happen unless the president cracks
the whip on Sharon," a senior Arab official said Monday.
"He
has to do it in the Oval Office. There is a lot of doubt about the
president's willingness to do so."
The
plan's other authors, the U.N., EU and Russia, have also urged
pressure on Sharon, although Bush indirectly chastised them on Monday
for undercutting the Abbas government by continuing to recognize the
authority of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
"Europe
must work with us to do everything we can to discourage the terrorist
activities that derail a process toward peace," the Post
quoted Bush as saying.
U.N.
especial envoy for the Middle East Terje Roed-Larsen noted that the
plan bars Israel from punitive attacks on civilians and demolition of
Palestinian homes, yet "only hours after the presentation of the
road map on 1 May, Israeli military operations in Gaza City left
13 Palestinians dead and "destruction of property
continued."
On
Sunday, May 18, a double attack in al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) killed
7 people and injured 20 plus the two bombers, said an official
Israeli source.
On
Monday, at least four people were
killed plus the bomber and dozens wounded in a bomb attack at
the entrance of a shopping center in the northern Israeli town of
Afula.
Maladministration
The
New York Times, for its part, said
that everything seems to be "going the wrong way" in one of
the world’s most combustible regions as Bush tries hard to make the
nation "think of him as a statesman."
"Mr.
Bush has himself to blame in part, for failing to plan adequately for
a postwar period in Iraq, which instead of serving as a model for
enlightened American rule... is turning into a symbol of American
maladministration."
It
further said that the U.S.-led international coalition against terror
has been weakened by the US decision to go to war in Iraq, and those
"damaged relations now urgently need to be rebuilt."
On
the Israeli-Arab conflict, the Times said that if Bush had not
neglected the crisis in his first year in office, he might not be
facing such a seemingly intractable (Middle East) deadlock today.
Urging
"strong, sustained pressure from Washington," the
mass-circulation paper said that only "a concerted American
effort, led by Mr. Bush himself, can bring (Abbas and Sharon)... to
take the steps that are needed to quell the violence and rekindle
peace talks."
Even
more disturbing, the Times editorial said, were the recent
bombings in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, "which have demonstrated
that the war against terrorism is far from over (and al-Qaeda's)
organization and its affiliates are far from finished off."
On
May 12, some 34 people were
killed, including up to 12 Americans, in car bombings blamed
on the Al-Qaeda network that razed three expatriate compounds in the
Saudi capital Riyadh.
World
capitals also condemned bombings in the Moroccan city of Casablanca on
May 16, that killed at least 40 people and injured around 60 others,
with Israel defending itself against being a main reason behind the
surging fatal attacks in the Middle East.
"Saluting
cheering troops and campaigning for tax cuts may be good politics for
Mr. Bush as he runs for a second term, but the president has a lot of
work ahead in the Middle East before he can lay claim to the title of
statesman," it said.
