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Editor: 

“What are we doing? Do we have a policy in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” 

These are questions people are beginning to ask the Bush administration as the body count continues to the multiply, daily, from the escalation of violence occurring in and around Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories. 

Over the last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell has passed through the gauntlet of media press, advocating restraint on both sides, but when pressed, the secretary repeats the same administration line - blaming Palestinian President Yasser Arafat for the suicide bombings, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has limited his effectiveness by placing him under house arrest. Both the United States and Israel knows that Arafat's power does not extend to militant elements of Hamas and Hezbollah, their growing power in the region spurred by the frustration of Palestinians want to achieve an equal accord with Israel now, not later. Their frustration becomes magnified as all parties realized how close they actually came towards peace.  

During the Clinton administration, significant progress occurred because the U.S. decides to become a full third partner in the peace negotiation process. Israeli armies had left Gaza and West bank, suicide bombing were drastically reduced, and the talk between former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat was not about ‘building a wall,’ but rather how to manage a symbiotic economic trade policy between Israel and its fledgling Palestine neighbor. Flash-forward to the Bush administration, it is obvious that the current isolationist foreign policy towards the Middle East (besides the war on terror) isn’t working. 

Already, the cable news outlets have had a field day with the Gallop poll results released last week, showing that most respondents from the Muslim world had unfavorable opinions toward the U.S. The continuing debacle of the President's State of the Union phrase “axis of evil” and the U.S. Special Forces stalemate around Gardez, Afghanistan, does not help to discount this view. Increasingly even mainstream media outlets (with the exception of Fox News) is asking for a more detailed road map in between resolve issues within the war on terror. With the rate of violence spiraling out of control, shots of the Afghan warfront are competing with video of Israeli soldiers invading the Palestinian refugee camps. (Bad news for Sharon and Colin Powell.) 

Even with the peace proposals by Saudi Prince Crown Prince Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, missiles still bombard Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's compound. The latest being Wednesday when Arafat was receiving European Union Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos in an attempt to stimulate some positive dialogue against the rising tensions. Apparently former general Ariel Sharon would rather see the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in flames (appeasing Israeli conservatives), than go to the negotiating table and give land for peace.  

The irony of the situation is that Yasser Arafat is more popular among Palestinians and Europeans, than Ariel Sharon, whose sole ally in his ‘get tough’ stance is none other than the United States. However, it remains to be seen if the Secretary of State is willing to see more innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians die in attacks and reprisals, without commenting that all-out war would be disastrous. The United States cannot afford to lose its sphere of positive influence letting the burgeoning conflict spin out of control. 

Regrettably, the reason why the Bush administration will step in this Mideast conflict will have less to do mending fences, rather it will be another example of the conservative agenda trying to reinstate the image of American imperialism at home and abroad. An imperialism that, while able to preserve a ‘little vs. heavy’ peace, paradoxically caused many of the issues the region currently deals with (autocratic governments, religious extremist violence). 

The only answer to the unending volley of violence is for Secretary of State Colin Powell to again start the United States down a path of mediation between Israel and Palestine, treating Palestine President Yasser Arafat with the same degree of respect as the Israeli Prime Minister. Though it may ruffle the features conservatives and military hawks that view Arafat as a de-facto terrorist, the Palestinian people support him and he is their elected leader (Would Ariel Sharon and President Bush prefer militant Hamas?). To continue to disrespect and blame Arafat for the continued intifada, disrespects the Palestinian people, whose rights of self-determination and human decency continue to be eroded. Even Yasser Arafat’s political power in the region is limited, as Sharon and Powell know too well, as a ‘boxed-in’ Arafat makes the lure of Hamas and Hezbollah even stronger. This option leaves many Palestinians with no choice but to fight. Israeli military, while attempting to crush the Palestinian insurrection, clumsily are making even innocent civilians into targets, as decrepit refugee camps turn into mini-war zones. With this scenario, only one thing is certain: further Israeli violence only helps Hamas, bringing war everlasting. 

Tommy Ates 

Texas