President Bush is right to rejoin the Mideast peace process and uphold the terms of his road map

RANCH DRESSING

President Bush is right to rejoin the Mideast peace process and uphold the terms of his road map

April 12, 2005

Apart from an abiding and mutual hostility, the two principal obstacles to an enduring peace in the Middle East are Israel's ever-expanding settlements in occupied territory and many Palestinians' refusal to give up terrorism and other mayhem. President Bush was right to point out the first to Ariel Sharon during the Israeli prime minister's visit Monday to the president's Texas ranch. Continued violence allowed Sharon to mention the latter as the main impediment to negotiations.

Although the chances for Mideast peace increased with the death of Yasser Arafat and Sharon's insistence that Israel evacuate the Gaza Strip, success will depend on the personal involvement of the U.S. president. Bush signaled that engagement by inviting Sharon to his Crawford spread. There he warned Sharon that settlement expansion on the West Bank was intolerable. Sharon agreed to abide by the terms of the road map, despite intense pressure from his own party to maintain and expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Having drawn a line in the sand concerning the settlements, Bush must be prepared to enforce it. In a way, the president's resolve gives Sharon cover for his evacuation plans still vulnerable to Israeli extremists who resist conveying any of the occupied territory to Palestinian sovereignty.

President Bush's objectives in the Middle East do not end with a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, or even with the coming of democracy in Iraq. He envisions a latter-day domino effect in reverse, whereby one election in a former Arab dictatorship breeds another.

However, establishing two coexisting states lies at the key of Bush's ambitions. Resentment toward Israel allows Arab rulers to deny their people freedom while blaming it on others. Forward-looking, hopeful momentum toward a peace settlement would be almost as helpful to freedom and democracy in the Middle East as a settlement itself.

This week President Bush is fully engaged in pursuing that objective. He will have to maintain intense involvement in order to move Israeli-Palestinian relations off the dispiriting status quo.