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Bush needs to act now
The US president should use his Middle East visit to rein in Israel.
- By Manal Alafrangi, Staff Writer
- Published: 00:25 January 8, 2008
The US President George W. Bush will arrive in the Middle East this week, with an itiner-ary spanning the Levant and the Gulf. Landing first in Israel and the Occupied Territories, where his team is currently making security arrangements, Bush will undoubtedly talk of peace. But is he actually going to say anything that will have an impact?
That is, Bush could apply strong public pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on certain issues, such as freezing all colony activities, the issue of borders, occupied Jerusalem and refugees. But for countless reasons, he will not.
For one, Bush has been in power for seven years and has never once applied real pressure on the Jewish state on any of the "final-status" issues. Why should he start now? It is unlikely this US president will want to be remembered as the first to criticise Israel while on an official visit. And just to demonstrate the level of bias, it has been announced that while Bush is going to spend two days in Israel, he will only spend six hours in the West Bank.
Incidentally, it has been announced that electricity in Gaza will have to be cut off for eight hours every day because Israel has sharply cut fuel supplies. Will Bush take notice of Gazans' plight? Will he visit the site of the illegal separation wall? Will he attempt to experience an Israeli checkpoint (found is every corner of the occupied Palestinian territories) and watch Palestinians struggle to travel in their own land? Will he speak to Palestinians whose family members were stuck for weeks at the Egyptian-Palestinian border? Will he visit the thousands of Palestinian prisoners, majority of whom are being held without trial, in Israeli jails? In other words, it is doubtful that Bush will have sufficient time or even an opportunity to truly capture the cruelty of daily Palestinian life. That the Israeli leadership was given a warm reception during the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland is demonstrative of the nature of the relationship the two countries share and how far (or how little) the US is willing to pressure its ally, Israel.
Secondly, since this is Bush's first visit to Israel since taking office, it is likely to be one filled with greetings and meetings - not to mention the precious "tourist" shots.
Calculated attempt
If anything, this visit is a calculated attempt by the Bush administration to demonstrate US presidential engagement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is also one way of keeping international focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of America's and Israel's real concern, Iran.
Just two days ago, Bush declared on Israeli army radio that his country would defend its close ally Israel in the event of an Iranian attack. Surely, the Israeli prime minister is keen on knowing exactly what the US reaction will be if Israel were to launch a unilateral military strike. Far from discussing a Palestinian state, Bush will most likely discuss with Olmert the latest policies towards Iran, especially since an American National Intelligence Estimate, which was released by a group of American agencies, noted last month that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 (and this has interfered with US efforts to impose further economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.)
Moreover, the historic presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at last month's GCC summit in Qatar - the first Iranian leader to be invited to a GCC summit in the organisation's 27-year history - has paved the way for greater cooperation between Iran and the Gulf states. In this context, Iran's response to Bush's planned trip - calling it an interference in relations between regional states - is spot on.
Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up its attacks on the Palestinians, killing dozens of people in the past month and threatening any prospect for peace. Unsurprisingly, Bush's visit goes on as scheduled.
The 43rd US president told an Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, on Friday that one of reasons he is going to the region is to remind both sides (Israelis and Palestinians) that they have to work hard to achieve peace. Here's a message to him: Mr Bush, at this point, your reminders are pointless when Israeli policies of aggression and escalation continue to be carried out. "Wanting to move the process forward" is one thing. Actually doing something about it is a different matter altogether. And given your performance thus far, both domestically and internationally, you ought to act now.
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