A new Mideast offer

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

AFTER FIVE months of bloody incursions and rocket attacks, a cease-fire is taking hold in Israel and Palestinian territories.

There's a chance, a very slim one, that this breather could lead to greater things: a prisoner exchange, fewer checkpoints, and freed-up financing for the cash-starved Palestinian government. These steps could head to the next level such as Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and a more moderate Palestinian leadership willing to recognize Israel's right to exist.

If this diplomatic ladder sounds familiar, that's because it is. Both sides broke off talking and waged small-scale war until now. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert originally thought a series of unilateral pullbacks of Israeli settlers from Palestinian-claimed land would spur peace talks. It didn't work, and the Lebanon war, which strained Israel's vaunted military, doomed that strategy.

Now it's back to basics: so-called "confidence-building'' steps to bring each side along. But we've been here before, and hardliners on each side will pounce at violations or snubs. Olmert's ally must be Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian leader within the ultra-militant Hamas cadre running things.

Weak as both men appear politically, each badly needs to strike a deal and prove peace is possible. It's no accident that Elmert uncorked his latest plan on the eve of visit of President Bush to Jordan. What will the White House to seize this moment?

King Abdullah of Jordan, Bush's host this week, noted the Mideast now has three civil wars brewing in Iraq, Lebanon and within Palestinian territories. Regional peace can't survive these strains, he indicated.

A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian will ease this pressure for now.