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December 7, 2001/Kislev 22, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 13
U.S. peace push scuttled
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - A weekend's worth of bloody attacks on Israel have turned the Bush administration's first major push for peace in the Middle East on its head.
Just two weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was outlining the path toward a cease-fire in the region and dispatching an envoy to add emphasis to his words.
Talk of a Palestinian state was receiving unprecedented support in the United States, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was being pressured to cut back on his demands for quiet before starting negotiations.
Now, after a series of suicide bombers in Jerusalem and Haifa claimed the lives of at least 25 Israelis, the old checklist for the path toward negotiations has been thrown out, and new questions are arising.
Paramount among these questions is whether Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is a legitimate partner for peace and a legitimate leader of the Palestinian people.
Envoy Anthony Zinni, a former U.S. Marine Corps general, remains in the region "making calls," according to a State Department spokesman, but is no longer working toward his initial goal of a cease-fire.
Perhaps most significant is the U.S. decision not to call for Israel restraint in reaction to the attacks.
And even after Israel began attacking Gaza on Dec. 3 and announced its declaration of war on terrorism, U.S. officials continued to say Israel has a right to defend itself.
The United States is in some ways handicapped by its own international battle against terrorism.
Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, it has become harder for the United States to urge Israel to refrain from attacking the targets of its domestic terrorism while it is doing the same thing in Afghanistan.
Some Middle East analysts think the support for Israel's position will continue as long as Israel doesn't go too far.
"It depends on whether Sharon is sensitive to the broader objectives of Washington and the war on terrorism," said Mark Ginsburg, a former diplomat in the Clinton administration.
"Zinni should go home," said Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum. "If he were to succeed in getting talks back on track, it would only signal that Israel was weak."
The current climate has made it virtually impossible for Zinni to bring the parties together for his original mission.
But if Arafat was willing to work with Zinni, he was unable to contain the radical groups, and the envoy himself has acknowledged that his presence might have been a catalyst for the weekend's attacks.
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