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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (49702)	4/7/2002 12:58:29 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Powell's daunting mission Chicago Tribune Editorial Published April 7, 2002 After a week of watching Israel take the war against terrorism into one West Bank city after another, President Bush concluded the United States couldn't watch any longer. A week ago, administration officials were saying that their approach to the operation was to "ride it out." Thursday, the president declared, "Enough is enough." His decision to send Secretary of State Colin Powell is the latest American effort to quell violence in one of the most dangerous conflicts on earth. As with past undertakings, there are no guarantees that it will succeed. But with everything this country has at stake in the Middle East, the administration had little choice but to get more involved. The consequences of inaction have simply been too great. The war between Israelis and Palestinians has been horribly costly to both sides, with nearly 1,300 Palestinians killed and more than 400 Israelis. The peace process that began in Oslo has been all but destroyed. Oil prices have jumped. Arab governments friendly to the U.S. fear for their own stability. U.S. attempts to build support for military action against Saddam Hussein have been rebuffed in Europe as well as Arab capitals. The sense that the turmoil is spiraling out of control grows each day. So Powell will set out to make good on Bush's declaration that "America is committed to ending this conflict." No one can be terribly optimistic about what the secretary of state will accomplish. A year and a half of terrorist violence against Israel has dried up most Israeli support for compromise with the Palestinians. Israelis once were ready to trade land for peace. Today, most of them doubt that any trade would allow them to live normally in a peaceful, secure nation. Palestinians, meanwhile, have grown more resentful than ever of Israel's power over their lives, and more supportive than ever of using any means they can find to fight back--including suicide bombers bent on murdering Jews. The glimmers of hope are scarce, but they do exist. The Arab League has endorsed a peace plan that for the first time offers Israel normal relations with her neighbors. Washington has unequivocally endorsed a Palestinian state. Any illusions about Arafat harbored in Europe or the Arab world should have been dashed by the seizure of a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian arms bound for the Palestinian Authority, and by the documents found by Israeli troops showing his ties to organizations promoting suicide bombings. The damage done to terrorist groups in this assault should yield at least a partial respite of the bloodshed. But that achievement may prove fruitless in the absence of a political strategy that offers ordinary Palestinians the prospect that their lives may improve. Sharon seems to have none. Arafat has done himself so much damage that he is close to irrelevant. So the U.S. may need to stop urging the parties to talk and insist that they accept an outside plan that would split their differences in a fair and realistic way. That plan could be enforced by international peacekeepers, including American forces. At the moment, though, the first task for Washington is to stop the slide toward the abyss. In announcing this initiative, President Bush said, "The storms of violence cannot go on." Powell is up against a lot of Middle Eastern history that says otherwise. Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune