Newsday

Meanwhile, in the Mideast...

To think war in Iraq will advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians is optimistic.

March 19, 2003

For all the expectations raised by President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a breakthrough in the Mideast as one of the goals of a war with Iraq, developments on the ground continue to disappoint.

Blair wants to give the impression that with the Palestinians appointing a prime minister to run the Palestinians' day-to-day affairs, there is a new chance to start the peace process. The goal has been to reduce the role played by the always- disappointing Yasser Arafat and hope that the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, one of Arafat's long-time deputies popularly known as Abu Mazen, will make a big difference.

But as even Secretary of State Colin Powell noted yesterday, it's disappointing that Arafat has kept the key jobs of defense and security under his control. Abbas has been an architect of peace proposals with Israel in the past and is well regarded by many Israeli officials. But this much is clear: Arafat has not only made no attempt to control the vicious violence against Israeli citizens, he has been directly responsible for some of it. And he will remain in charge of security. Until there is concrete evidence that the Palestinians are trying to end the violence, Israelis understandably will continue to support the hard-line government of their prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

At the same time, Sharon has made it clear that he and his hawkish government partners will continue both to expand settlements in the West Bank and to retaliate against Palestinian violence with an iron fist. Sharon's settlements policy is a tragic mistake that will only make it more difficult to negotiate peace with the Palestinians and serves to undercut those few Palestinians who want to negotiate for peace. Sharon is playing to a minority, hard-line faction in Israel to the detriment of his nation's long-term interests.

Obviously, any progress in ending the violence between Israelis and Palestinians will have to await the outcome of the U.S. war with Iraq. It could create a new climate for peace, as did the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

But if that is a necessary condition, it is not a sufficient condition. That would require the Palestinians to remove Arafat from any real power and give Abbas real authority. He doesn't have it now.