In his July 16 address, President Bush announced an international meeting this fall among Israelis, Palestinians and other countries, to be chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to “provide diplomatic support” for “negotiations” to “move forward on a successful path to a Palestinians state” -- notwithstanding the utter failure of the Palestinians to begin dismantling their terrorist infrastructure, as required by Phase I of the Roadmap.
It sure sounded a lot like Recommendation 14 in the Report of the Iraq Study Group, which urged the “unconditional calling and holding of meetings, under the auspices of the United States or the Quartet . . . between Israel and Palestinians . . . to negotiate peace as was done at the Madrid Conference of 1991 . . .” (which the Iraq Study Group apparently believed was relevant to Iraq). Last week, the Quartet endorsed Bush’s call for an international meeting, using the precise words from his address.
The day after the President’s speech, in light of immediate criticism of it, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow played down the significance of the meeting:
Q . . . [O]n this Middle East conference, I'm not clear, where is it going to be held and --
MR. SNOW: We don't know yet. And it's really -- I would -- even though I know I used the term "conference" this morning, this is a meeting. It is a meeting that is designed -- it is -- I think a lot of people are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference. It's not. This is a meeting to sit down and try to find ways of building fundamental and critical institutions for the Palestinians that are going to enable them to have self-government and democracy.
Q And who is in charge? Former Prime Minister Blair or (inaudible)?
MR. SNOW: No, Prime Minister Blair, obviously, as the Quartet representative. It's not anybody in charge. What it is, is a gathering of people who are interested. You're going to have parties in the region; you're also going to have Prime Minister Blair as the Quartet representative. They are going to be sharing ideas, trying to figure out how to move forward.
So: it’s not a conference, it’s a meeting -- actually, it’s a gathering, an opportunity to share ideas. Nobody’s in charge. They’ll talk about building Palestinian institutions.
Yesterday at the daily State Department press conference, Press Secretary Sean McCormack had a somewhat different take. Here is an excerpt from his exchange with reporters, when he was asked to describe Condoleezza Rice’s goal for her upcoming trip to the Middle East:
MR. MCCORMACK: . . . She's going to obviously touch on the meeting that the President announced will be held in the fall time about moving forward the political track between the Israelis and the Palestinians and we hope between the Israelis and the Arab states. . . . She’s going to talk to Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas about how they can move forward their political track, where they stand in their discussions and how we can help them move forward. She's going to be talking with both Egypt and Saudi leaders . . . . I expect they will also touch on Israeli-Palestinian issues, Israeli-Arab issues, and I'm sure that they will probably also touch upon this meeting that is planned for the fall time. . . .
QUESTION: There is no special objective, precise objective she wants to achieve?
MR. MCCORMACK: Well, all of this -- you know, all of this, all of these engagements, all of these trips, all of these meetings, all of these discussions with these leaders are to talk about concrete ways in which they can act to move the process forward. Ultimately, this will come down to Palestinians, Israelis and Arab leaders making tough decisions about how to bring about a more peaceful Middle East. We're going to be right there with them. We're going to be pushing. We're going to be prodding, cajoling, encouraging and doing what we can to move that process forward and all of these meetings are part of that process.
QUESTION: But she's not going there to talk about, sort of, final status issues or anything like that?
MR. MCCORMACK: Hey, she's going to go there to talk about how to move forward the political track. . . .
QUESTION: So is she also going to be looking at specifics for the conference at the -- in the fall of the meeting or where it's going to be?
MR. MCCORMACK: That's where all of this is, in part, leading. . . . The meeting is a mechanism through which we can all try to move forward a political track.
So: the meeting will be devoted (as McCormack mentioned four times) to moving forward the “political track” -- a/k/a Phase III of the Roadmap. The U.S. will be pushing, prodding, cajoling, requiring “tough decisions.”
Who do you think will be pushed, prodded, and cajoled into making “tough decisions” – even before the Palestinians have commenced compliance with Phase I of the Roadmap?
I remember not so long ago when the U.S. promised there would be two phases before this, and when Israel acted in reliance upon that promise. How all this will add to the U.S. reputation for reliability in either Iraq or Israel (or impress adversaries who already doubt the strength of U.S. commitments) is beyond me.
I warned Sharon about this when he agreed with his 14 amendments (well I warned whowever would listen) that this would not require any performance on the part of the Palis. I shouted at the time, with State Department in charge of compliance, Powell would ignore Arab intransigence and simply skim over their obligations and declare his Palestinian State.
It seems the Powell legacy is living on, and I would not be surprised if the Palestinian state is declared by Olmert and Abbas before elections are held in Israel.
These are indeed dark times, and I see little hope at the end of the tunnel.
Posted by: J. Lichty | July 25, 2007 at 07:22 AM