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Bush Weighs Mideast Trip as Peace Plan Ebbs

(New York Times) An official described the internal mood within the administration as one of "anxiety and desperation" after the latest cycle of five suicide attacks against Israelis since Saturday, Israeli crackdowns, and the failure last week of Secretary of State Powell to bridge any of the differences between the sides. A trip by Mr. Bush to the Middle East was uncertain, administration officials said, and his aides were said to disagree over whether he should become more personally involved at all in the Israeli-Palestinian morass. Some administration officials said there continued to be talk about selecting a special envoy, but "How many special envoys have gone out there and had their reputations ruined?" asked an administration official. "Where are we going to find somebody willing to do it when the chances are so poor?" To the dismay of many in the administration, the road map plan, which was supposed to facilitate peace, has become an impediment to it, in the process isolating Israel as opposing something favored by Europe, the UN, Russia, the American president, and the Arab world. Administration officials now say they face a choice of abandoning the road map altogether and starting over, or somehow trying to persuade Israel to endorse it, perhaps by agreeing to some changes. One official said a way out of the dilemma would be to recall that there was always going to be a period of "public commentary" after the plan was published.
2003-05-21 00:00:00
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