Just saw Inside Washington, my favorite talking heads program, with Nina Totenburg, Jack Beatty, Evan Thomas and Charles Krauthammer.
Krauthammer spoke well of Abu Mazen, which surprised and impressed me. He said Abu Mazen used to be Arafat, but he changed his mind. Now he knows that terror is a dead-end road. But the transition of power is incomplete (that's putting it mildly) and it's useless to negotiate while Arafat is still in power.
Then Totenburg and Beatty, on cue, began going on how Bush had to really get involved and pressure both sides to make the process work. Krauthammer just asked, what is it that Bush is supposed to do?
They had no specific answer, having gotten the wrong end of the stick. Once the two parties want to make peace, then an American President can make the deal happen by cajoling, bribing, threatening, whatever. If the two parties don't want the peace, it won't happen. Maybe Abu Mazen does want the peace, but Arafat does not. Hamas certainly does not want the peace, and Arafat has always permitted Hamas to flourish. When the Israelis see a Palestinian government make a serious attempt to put down Hamas, then Israeli rollbacks will occur and then negotiations will be fruitful. Not before. |
