Here's an editorial I agree with regarding the Isaeli/PLO saga.
"WHAT IS POWELL THINKING?
Tue Apr 16, 5:01 AM ET
The Bush administration may well have some grand plan for dealing with the inferno in Israel - but from events of recent days, it's sure hard to discern just what that plan might be.
On one hand, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)'s support for a regional peace conference that would exclude Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) suggests that Team Bush may finally recognize the PLO leader's lack of interest in ending the bloodshed.
On the other hand, only days after Arafat snubbed Powell at a weekend meeting and refused to discuss anything save a full Israeli withdrawal, Powell saw fit to schedule yet another meeting with Arafat, slated for tomorrow.
This, undoubtedly, is great news for Arafat - and terrorists the world over.
After all, such meetings effectively resurrect the man Israel - and seemingly President Bush (news - web sites), too, at one point - sees as uninterested in peace. And they put a U.S. stamp of approval on terror, at least in the minds of the terrorists.
Still, Powell's assertion that a regional conference "doesn't require [Arafat's] presence," suggests that the administration might yet back routes to peace that bypass the Palestinian leader.
Not that, even sans Arafat, such a conference has much of a prayer, given the general belligerence in the region.
Powell, after all, was instantly rebuffed yesterday by the leaders of Syria and its puppet regime in Lebanon - both of whom declared their support for continued terrorism against Israel.
And Palestinian officials are hardly likely to participate in substantive negotiations without Arafat's blessing.
But most troubling is that - conference or no, Powell parley or no - Arafat is bent on using terror as a weapon.
So it was sure nice to hear yesterday that Israel captured one of Arafat's top aides - Marwan Barghouti, who heads the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Fatah (news - web sites) Tanzim, two groups largely responsible for much of the recent terror.
Israel says it means to place Barghouti on trial - just as it wants to try, or deport, the scores of Palestinian gunmen barricaded inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. And rightly so.
At the same time, though, Sharon disclosed that Israel will withdraw from all West Bank cities except for Ramallah and Bethlehem by next week.
That's decidedly risky: Within hours of Israel's withdrawal from Tulkarem last week, the terrorists moved back in; one immediately made his way to Haifa and blew up a bus, killing six and wounding more than 90 Israeli civilians.
Still, Sharon is prepared to step back just so far. He has made clear that he is not about to sacrifice Israel's basic security for a one-sided ceasefire, and no one should expect him to.
As for Arafat, he has shown repeatedly that he is incapable of seizing the moment and pursuing genuine negotiations without the use of terror.
Here's hoping that, at the end of the day, the Bush folks understand that."
story.news.yahoo.com |
