The revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process could get derailed at the starting gate unless President George W. Bush acts quickly to put it back on track. Bush, who pledged to become actively involved in the process after a seven-year hiatus, must persuade Israel to give up its wrongheaded plan to enlarge a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. …
At a summit last month in Annapolis, Md., Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to resume the peace process. They also agreed to implement the key provisions of the 2003 road map. That blueprint for peace called on Israel to freeze the construction of Jewish settlements and for Palestinians to impose law and order in the occupied territories.
As a goodwill gesture after Annapolis, Abbas deployed hundreds of members of security forces in the northern West Bank cities of Nablus and Tulkarem, in an attempt to curb militant factions. Israel also must do its part.
And so must Washington. Bush should use whatever pressure is necessary to get Israel to rescind its settlement-enlarging plan. If the scheme was devised as a way for Israeli hard-liners to kill the peace process at its rebirth, they would succeed - and prove skeptics right once again. If Bush is serious about making Mideast peace a priority, he cannot allow that to happen. Access the full article>>
