Playing for keeps

Editorial

In what was the equivalent of a diplomatic full court press, the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia met in New York this week seeking some way out of the Middle East quagmire.

No one was placing any bets on this round of talks, despite the impressive diplomatic line-up. Even as the players were suiting up, there was another bus bombing in Jerusalem leaving eight Israelis dead.

Trying to keep the ball in play after President Bush's strongly pro-Israel speech three weeks ago, the United States was looking for a way to put a new Palestinian team in place with a new playbook. Bush called for benching Yasser Arafat, or at the very least cutting his playing time, and coming up with proposals for serious political and economic reform, a worthy game plan.

As usual, players were lining up on both sides of the court even before the clock started ticking. Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak put on a pre-game show earlier this week. Ben-Eliezer rightly insisted that Arafat be sidelined, Mubarak said Arafat deserved more playing time, defending his position as the democratically elected leader of his people. But it's clear to even the most sympathetic fan that Arafat's time is up, and he deserves to be benched.

Once Arafat is out, what's desperately needed is renewed focus on the endgame and how it can be a win-win for both Israelis and Palestinians. This requires a shared resolve to stop the violence and assure Israel's security to move the Palestinians closer to their dream of a sovereign state.

Too, there has to be a determination to go beyond the home court, and its decided advantage, and move the game into the global sphere.

This necessitates developing an even more sophisticated game plan, one that can catapult Palestinian society into the 21st century and improve the quality of life for the Palestinian people.

That means substantive structural change by the Palestinian Authority. It also means a new generation of leadership invested with the authority to engineer the necessary paradigmatic cultural shift, preparing the Palestinian people to embrace peace, weaning them from role models who advocate hatred and homicidal martyrdom.

A pretty big order, but in global politics, as in sports, anything is possible. It's just a matter of the players keeping their eyes on the ball.

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