The Powell Mission
The New York Times / Editorial
April 15, 2002
It is not easy to judge how much Secretary of State Colin Powell has accomplished in his three days in Israel. At this bloody moment in the Middle East, optimism would be unfounded. Nonetheless, the only path out of this violent morass will come from the kind of sustained, clear-eyed, top-level guidance that Mr. Powell has brought to the region, and there are glimmers of progress.
Until this past weekend, for example, Palestinians and Israelis had done nothing but aggravate the conflict. The Palestinian leadership had pointedly refused to speak out against the pathology of suicide bombings and the Israeli government had put forward no political vision or suggestion for what should follow its current military action.
But after yet another horrific suicide attack in Jerusalem Friday afternoon that killed six Israelis, the Palestinian Authority yielded to American pressure and issued a condemnation, signed by Mr. Arafat. It specifically criticized the Jerusalem attack and all targeting of Israeli civilians. That led Mr. Powell to agree to a meeting yesterday with Mr. Arafat, which appears to have gone well.
Then later yesterday, Mr. Sharon stepped forward with an intriguing proposal that the United States play host to a new Middle East peace conference that would include Israel, the Palestinians, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and others. If such a meeting could occur with the Saudi peace plan — full Israeli-Arab relations in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal — as its focus, there might be room for real progress.
Each side quickly dismissed the gesture of the other, of course. The Israelis said that they had no interest in condemnations, only action against terror, and that Mr. Arafat was irredeemable. The Palestinians said that what was needed was not another international meeting like the one held in 1991 in Madrid but Israeli military withdrawal so that political discussions could start.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military showed no signs of letting up its assault on many of the West Bank's towns and refugee camps despite repeated American calls to pull back. In the Jenin refugee camp, there remained heated charges and countercharges regarding the number of dead and the extent of the attack's brutality.
Mr. Powell plans to fly to Damascus and Beirut today in an effort to keep the conflict from spreading, a serious concern. Iranian-financed and Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas have been shelling northern Israel to support the Palestinians. Israel has shown restraint there so far, but this new front must be prevented from heating up further.
The Israeli inner cabinet yesterday approved a plan for buffer zones along the West Bank to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel. The plan calls for fences and electronic surveillance equipment. Such a border might make sense at some point, but real Israeli security will prove elusive until the occupation of the West Bank ends and Palestinians are permitted to rebuild their institutions and establish their state. Mr. Powell's work has just begun.
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