|
Euro-Atlanticism and the
Mideast
Steven Menashi :: 12/27/2004
The Washington
Post argues that the president's desire to mend relations with Europe
conflicts with his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the Bush
administration has insisted on reform within the Palestinian Authority, the
Europeans want to put more pressure on Israel. The Post paints this as a wide
gulf, but the piece fails to mention Tony Blair's trip to Israel last week,
where he too argued
that reforms were necessary for "the Palestinian side to become a proper
partner for peace with Israel":
Viability cannot just be about territory. The viability has to
be that of a state that is democratic, that is not giving any succor or help
to terrorism and that uses the help that it is given from the outside in a
proper and transparent way.
Saul
Singer, in the Jerusalem Post, writes that this "means that taking
democracy seriously is no longer just the quaint province of George W. Bush and
Natan Sharansky, but has spread...to Europe. It also means that the conference
that Blair is proposing for next month in London might, for a change, advance
peace." The London conference aims to help Palestinians build democratic
institutions. At the same time, some 600 Palestinian politicians and
intellectuals, in a public
statement called "What We Want from the Elected President," are
calling for a "firm commitment to democratic deals" and "the
implementation of good governance, mainly the rule of law, transparency and
accountability."
The Post repeats the idea that Bush "keeps giving Israel
a pass" and "has devoted little attention to the issue." But
Ha'aretz's Aluf Benn argues,
"Under Bush, Sharon has adopted a policy that is the reverse of what he
believes in, and has accepted severe limitations on his own freedom of
action":
Bush and his people have gone beyond declarations and have
tried to have an impact on the reality of the Middle East. They have forced
the Likud government to support a Palestinian state. They have forced Sharon
both to promise to freeze settlements and evacuate outposts, and to agree to
close American inspection of construction in the territories. They have forced
him to return to the Palestinian Authority tax money that Israel owed the
Palestinians, and they have made it clear to the Palestinians that, if they
want a state, the price tag is internal reform and a change of regime.
All of which might be described as a synthesis of American and
European approaches to the peace process.
|