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April 30, 2004/Iyar 9 5764, Vol. 56, No. 32
Will Bush pay price for Gaza deal?
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Like his "Mission Accomplished" landing aboard an aircraft carrier just after the successful U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Bush's tri-umphal appearance with Ariel Sharon two weeks ago eventually could haunt his electoral prospects.
The historic deal between the president and the Israeli prime minister traded Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and a small part of the West Bank for U.S. recog-nition of some Israeli claims to the West Bank and a rejection of any Palestinian refugee return to Israel.
It also cut the Palestinians out of the negotiating process for now - and that could leave the United States responsible for Gaza, a crowded, parched patch of land that successive British, Egyptian and Israeli rulers never truly mastered.
"One wonders whether Bush really appreciates what he is getting himself and the United States into," Martin Indyk, the Clinton admini-stration's top Middle East official, wrote on April 25 in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
In the meantime, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), the presump-tive Democratic candidate, is able to exploit the non-incumbent's advantage: He can endorse the deal now and blame any subsequent failure on the incumbent president.
Kerry clearly understood the advantage when he praised Bush for the deal but - not even pausing to breathe - suggested that it was doomed to fail.
"What I fault the adminis-tration for is that they haven't done enough to create the climate within the Arab world to advance an entity within the West Bank, within the Palestinian Authority, that is capable of delivering a peace," Kerry told a gathering of newspaper editors last week.
Bush Administration spokesmen say the United States would assist the Palestinians in getting ready for self-rule, a commitment that would further stretch a diplomatic corps already working overtime in Iraq.
It isn't yet clear why the administration believes that the Palestinian Authority - an entity whose corruption and haplessness drove Bush to accept the Israeli prime minister's plan - will be any more capable of handling self-rule nine months from now, when Israel says it plans to leave.
David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said that for all its risks, the agree-ment has positives that could help Bush, especially with American Jewish voters.
"He reinforces in a major way the special bond between Israel and the U.S. and, second, he tries to demon-strate movement on the ground," Harris said.
Still, there are signs that the buy-now, pay-later approach might have been premature: Already, there have been repercussions.
In Iraq, the top U.N. envoy to the region, Lakhdar Brahimi - a man Bush is depending on for a smooth transition - said the agreement, and Israel's policies, were "poisoning" his work. A perception that the agreement with Sharon worsened an already deter-iorating situation in Iraq could offset whatever electoral gains Bush wins among Jewish voters.
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