Middle East Conflict Revisited
As of today, President Bush has directed Secretary of State Colin Powell to go to the Middle East to attempt to separate the Israelis and Palestinians in order to get peace negotiations back on track. Does Powell have more international clout than General Zinni, Bush's current Middle East negotiator? Yes. Can he do what Zinni has been unable to do? Probably not. The new approach was forced on the administration by Europeans who prefer to sit on the sidelines and watch the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and by Arab state leaders who also prefer to sit on the sidelines and criticize the world for not doing more.
Both the parties on the Middle East crisis have their own non-negotiable demands that they have sold their respective citizens that they expect to achieve as part of a Middle East peace settlement, but which neither can achieve as part of a negotiated settlement. A negotiated settlement implies neither side getting every thing they wanted. Neither side is ready to do this.
For all the world's expectations that the US can create a Middle East peace out the the warfare that is now going on, is ludicrous. For all those that keep calling for the US to do more, no peace plan can ever be implimented by both parties unless their leadership agree to it and their respective citizens accept it. It is time for the leaders of Israel and the Paletinian Authority to realize that it is up to them to create peace. They need to start in their own "backyards" before the can hope to negotiate a peace settlement at the "table".
04/05/02 ( 328 )
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