Palestine: the "Peace move" by President Bush

ON THE verge of close of his second term at the White House and keen to see a positive image of his Republican rule for the scheduled poll 2008, President George W. Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious negotiations, made a trip to Israel and West Bank as part of his Mideast tour. Bush said on 09 January that he came to Israel with high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the end of the year. "I come as an optimistic person and a realistic person — realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives," Bush said as he began his first presidential visit to Israel and launched talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Peres underscored Bush's hopes — considered unrealistic by many in the Mideast — to bridge decades of differences in just one year and reach agreement for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

By terrorists Bush could have meant Israeli air-strikes on Palestinians killing many at a time and destroying property worth billions of dollars. But in his another statement Bush comes back to his usual rhetoric. The president said both the United States and Israel have been targeted by terrorists, and he compared the battle against extremists to World War II when the U.S. and its allies fought communism. "I come with high hopes, and the role of the United States will be to foster a vision of peace. The role of the Israeli leadership and the Palestinian leadership is going to do the hard work necessary to define a vision," Bush said. With his heart lying in Israel and but his duty to find a lasting solution to one of the longest conflicts of the world, he thinks he would get support of Israel for his Palestine project. He thus faces a difficult task to win over the hearts and minds of Palestinians, who are deeply skeptical about his ability to be an even-handed peace broker between America's close ally Israel and the Palestinians whom he repeatedly call “terrorists” and “rogues”. Bush is trying to build momentum for stalled Mideast peace talks and clear up confusion about whether the United States is serious about confronting Iran about its suspected nuclear ambitions.

After holding separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Bush told a news conference that there should be "an end to the occupation that began in 1967". "Agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people," he said. Bush said this would require secure recognized and defensible borders for Israel, and a viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent Palestinian state. But he stressed that Israel would not have to withdraw from all occupied land and that mutually agreed adjustments to the 1967 borders would be necessary "to reflect current realities" - a reference to Israeli settlements. The president also said called for Palestinian refugees to be compensated, rather than being allowed to return to their former homes in what is now Israel. He also warned both sides not to do anything to break the promises they have already made, and which might make negotiations more difficult. "On the Israeli side, that includes ending settlement expansion and removing unauthorised outposts," he said. "On the Palestinian side, that includes confronting terrorists and dismantling terrorist infrastructure."

After wasting almost 8 long years in White House, now President Bush launched his Middle East tour with an ominous warning to Iran as tensions escalated following a weekend naval confrontation in the Gulf and US charges that the Islamic republic was still seeking nuclear weapons. The aggressive tone in his rhetoric did not indicate any revision of his Mideast policy or terror wars in Afghanistan. Rather he seems to have reiterated his stance on that agenda.

Bush came away with no significant breakthroughs after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Fatah Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but the White House said Bush did not expect dramatic progress while he was here. His three-day visit to the troubled region was part of his attempts to seal a peace agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders before he leaves office in 2009. But he warned that to achieve this, those involved had to be prepared "to have the courage to take the difficult decisions to make the difficult compromises".

HOPEFUL BUSH

On 09 January, a hopeful Bush held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the start of his first presidential visit to Jerusalem with the goal of advancing peace negotiations revived amid great fanfare six weeks ago. Although Bush told Israel to dismantle wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank, he did not call for a complete halt to settlement activity -- as repeatedly demanded by the Palestinians. And while Olmert once again pledged to dismantle the outposts, not build any new settlements and refrain from land expropriation, he declared that annexed east Jerusalem -- which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state -- was in a different category. "Jerusalem, as far as we are concerned, is not in the same status," he said. The next 12 months will be a moment of truth," Peres told Bush at an airport arrival ceremony complete with red carpets and a military band. "It must not yield just words."

Palestinian concerns about intensifying Israeli assaults against militants -- which have killed about 100 people, mostly gunmen, since the peace talks were re-launched in late November -- were also topped Thursday's talks. In his talks with president Mahmud Abbas and other senior leaders, Bush is expected to tell Palestinians that violence against Israel must stop before the ever-elusive peace deal is sealed and their promised state established. After talks with Olmert, an “emotionally hit” Bush quickly warned that violence against Israel from Gaza had to stop before a peace deal aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state can be achieved. "You can't expect the Israelis, and I certainly don't, to accept a state at their border which will become a launching pad for terrorist activity," he said.

US feels that peace efforts have been complicated by the split in Palestinian society since Fatah forced Hamas's takeover of the impoverished Gaza Strip in June which has left President Mahmud Abbas in charge only in the West Bank. Bush was forced to go by road to Ramallah after thick fog grounded his Marine One helicopter, on his first visit to the Palestinian territories since assuming office and only the second by a sitting US president. The Palestinians have put Ramallah under virtual curfew for the visit, with about 4,000 law enforcement officers fanned out across the city and all cars banned. The talks in Palestine were held in the Muqata government compound which was once virtually destroyed during an Israeli siege of then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, boycotted by Bush as an obstacle to peace.

The Palestinian Authority argues that the Israeli military operations undermine its efforts to reassert its authority and clamp down on law and order in the West Bank in the wake of the Hamas takeover of Gaza. Israel argues they are needed to prevent attacks on their territory. Abbas's lack of control in Gaza was underlined when thousands of Hamas supporters joined a mass rally against the visit, branding Bush the "butcher of the world" and brandishing pictures of the US leader with blood dripping from his mouth. Abbas is still hoping Bush's visit will bring Palestinian dreams of an independent state closer to reality and boost him in the standoff with the Islamist Hamas movement, which Washington and Israel brand a terror group. Many residents in Abbas's West Bank stronghold were also skeptical. "I don't believe he will do anything for the Palestinians," said a 64-year-old Ramallah resident. "If he wanted to really do something, he had six years for that and he didn't do a single thing." In a break with protocol of visiting foreign dignitaries, Bush was not expected to stop at Arafat's tomb inside the Muqata compound.

Bush wants Arab states to thrown support to Abbas in his internal fight with Palestinian militants and give him the regional support necessary to sustain any peace deal he could work out with Israel. Arabs came in force to Bush' Annapolis summit, and he had flattered them with frequent references to an Arab draft for peace that, like past U.S. efforts, did not stick. Close Arab allies including Egypt and Saudi Arabia had urged Bush to get more directly involved in Mideast peacemaking, saying the Palestinian plight seeded other conflicts and poisoned public opinion throughout the region. Those states and others have adopted a wait-and-see attitude since Annapolis, and Bush's visit is partly meant to nudge them off the fence.

As the next leg of his tour, from Israel, Bush was headed to Kuwait, a tiny oil-rich nation his father fought a war over and one of only two invited guests to skip the splashy Annapolis, Md., where Bush hosted for the new U.S.-backed peace talks. The other no-show was Iraq. In Kuwait, Bush was meeting Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, emir of the wealthy nation that sits at the top of the Persian Gulf. Kuwait is flanked by large and powerful neighbors Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran to the east. While in Kuwait, Bush was getting an update on Iraq's security and political status from his top military commander there. His visit to Kuwait on the first leg of a tour of Gulf Arab states aimed at gaining support for his peacemaking efforts and policy on Iran.

SOME OBSERVATIONS

The fact that this is the first ever visit by Bush to Palestine territories indicated that the USA has not been very keen for a negotiated settlement of Palestinian issue thus far and create a Palestine state, in spite of repeated peace meetings in the past. All said and done the intentions of President Bush for the creation of Palestine cannot be doubted beyond certain point, because it was Bush who first officially proposed for an Independent Palestine after he assumed office in Washington. But Bush took so long to visit the region has made the intentions murky and weak. The US policy for Middle East is the real culprit because an overtly pro-Israeli White House could not do much for the actual cause of peace in the region. Success of his visit would now depend on how far Washing would be able to restrict the pro-Israeli lobby in USA to follow his line of thinking on Palestine issue. And how much USA would repulse the Israeli attempts to get USA to destroy Palestinians.

Generally US deputes the secretary of State to visit Israel and Palestine territories for peace talks and the President only makes statements, mostly threatening the “ terrorist” Palestinians. President Bush has already issued statements regarding the freezing of the settlement expansion and establishment of an independent Palestinian state before the end of his term. However, these words need to be supported by action and real pressure on Israel, which is the only hindrance to reaching peace and establishing a Palestinian state. USA still aims at Iran. Although Bush and other U.S. officials have said Iran remains a threat, allies with less powerful militaries fear that the United States is taking itself out of a potential fight. Bush says he wants to solve the Iran puzzle through diplomacy but takes no options off the table. The peace effort is the centerpiece of Bush's eight-day tour, but the balance of the trip is likely to focus as much on the uncertain ambitions of Shiite Iran. Bush's Sunni allies are nervous about the rise of Iran in their midst, and the threat its adherents may one day pose to their authoritarian regimes, but also are sometimes at odds with the United States over the best strategy to address or confront Tehran.

President Bush has made his bit of peace making inline with US policy for Israel. Middle East Quartet envoy and former UK PM Tony Blair who is, like Rice, actively involved now in the US sponsored peace process, says he believes it is possible for a peace deal to be reached between the Israelis and Palestinians. Blair spoke after meeting US President George W Bush in Jerusalem. He also suggested a solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees that would involve paying them compensation. Bush wrapped up his landmark tour by visiting a Holocaust museum, a day after he urged Israel to stop occupying some Palestinian territory. It was thought to be Bush's strongest public statement pressing Israel to give up land it seized in the 1967 war. The former UK prime minister said there was "no option" but to have both a state of Israel and a Palestinian state "living side by side". He added that in the longer-term, most "sensible Israelis" knew the only real solution to security problems was a peace deal with the Palestinians. "There is no alternative but to push forward and to do so with determination."

President Bush, who claimed the “peace deal in sight” and appeared optimistic, closed his two days of formal talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a stern summation of his bottom lines for a peace pact he said should be completed this year. But Bush may be trying to clear himself of the guilt for taking the region to the verge of catastrophe, whether in Iraq or in the occupied Arab land. Once again, as before, USA has chosen to ignore the Hamas ruling party leaders during his visit and talks in Palestine. Bush should know that continued neglect of Hamas would not make any positive results emerging from the visits and talks. The fact that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Olmert are reported to be politically weak should not be a reason hindering a settlement between the two sides. The visit by Bush, therefore, will not yield any serious or new results. Nevertheless, he invites himself to our country and declares - even before landing - that there is no place in his schedule for a tripartite summit with the Palestinian president and the prime minister of the Hebrew state. Bush's tour will not have any effect and will not contribute to taking one step forward... Bush's cards are now known and it is possible that they are all useless.

In the 40 years since the Middle East war of June 1967, there have been many peace plans and many negotiations, including those between Egypt and Israel and Israel and Jordan, but a settlement has still not been reached in the core conflict, the dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians. Important milestones in this devastating peace processes were: SCR 242, 1967,Camp David, 1978 ,Madrid Conference 1991 ,Israeli-Syrian talks Oslo Agreement, 1993,Camp David, 2000, Taba, 2001, Saudi plan, 2002 ,Road Map, 2003 ,Geneva Accord, 2003 and Annapolis 2007. But none of the above could persuade Israel to stop aggression on Palestine and Lebanon, but on the contrary, Israeli military have continued to air-strike Palestine killing thousands of innocent lives and destroying property worth of billions of dollars. This is so primarily because of the tacit support and encouragement from USA, UK and other Western powers supplying arms and armaments to Tel-Aviv.

The aim of the US presidential visit, therefore, does not seem to be peace for peace's sake, but he seeks to make an achievement that can be attributed to him as success after the end of his presidency. President Bush cannot be a peace maker because all he knows is war and destruction... How can we believe that he is now coming to the region to establish an independent Palestinian state when he is the one who supported and still supports the daily Israeli massacres of the people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?

However, Bush's visit to the region could be more important than any visit by a top US official over the past 50 years. This is because a sitting US President has visited and it is clear in purpose and does indeed give peace a real chance at a time when everyone involved is willing to support it. After two days immersed in the intense and arcane world of Mideast peacemaking, President Bush on 11 January toured holy sites, listening as robed clerics read him biblical passages about Jesus' days of ministry there centuries ago. Bush visited Capernaum, a site where Jesus is said to have performed miracles. The president gazed across the Sea of Galilee where Jesus is claimed to have walked on water. He toured the site of an ancient synagogue and joked and held hands with nuns outside the Church of the Beatitudes, a place where Jesus delivered his famed "Sermon on the Mount." Asked how it felt to walk in Jesus' footsteps, Bush replied "Amazing experience." Wearing a black skullcap, Bush was joined by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres on a Friday morning visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

But, it is not what Bush, Sarkozy or others say on the eve of a visit to the Middle East that matters, but what follow-up action they take after returning home. We have heard strong words, warnings and even threats to Israel before high-ranking Western leaders and officials, like Tony Blair and Condoleezza Rice, embark on a trip to the region. Their words leave an impression on the gullible that they mean serious business and are committed to ensure a just and fair treatment for the Palestinians. When their “vacation” is over, Israel gets back to its normal “business as usual” of making Palestinian life hell.

The US-led West that fights the Muslims in Middle East and elsewhere must make the point clear to Israeli leadership that their main objective is peace in the region and not Israeli interests in the regions.