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Rebooting the "Peace Process"

[National Review] Editorial - Arab diplomats like to say that 80% of the Middle East's problems would disappear with a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is a fiction, and a self-serving one: It lets Arab rulers off the hook for their own malfeasance, and implies that America's Middle East policy should start and end in Jerusalem. Condoleezza Rice seemed to bow to this reasoning by announcing Monday that she would attend a three-way summit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in order to reboot the "peace process." Israel cannot make peace until it has a negotiating partner that both accepts its right to exist in security and enjoys sufficient power to keep in check those terroristic forces who don't. There is no question of Mahmoud Abbas' powerlessness. He holds no sway over the democratically elected murderers of Hamas, and he has lost much of his traditional control over the Fatah faction. Hardly the right conditions for a "final settlement." The administration should use Rice's mission as a justification to ask for Arab concessions: "You want us to be more involved in the peace process? Fine. Now let's talk about the rest of the Middle East." There are many things Arab states could do to be helpful: cracking down on terrorists and terrorist financing; supporting American diplomacy against Iran's nuclear program; trying to peel Damascus away from Tehran.
2007-01-17 01:00:00
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