President Bush Redefines U.S. Mideast Policy
(Updated April 2004)
President George
W. Bush’s letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
and statements following meetings between the two leaders, fundamentally shifted U.S.
Middle East policy in a way that significantly enhanced the prospects
for the creation of a Palestinian state beside a secure and defensible Israel.
President Bush reversed more than a half-century of
unsuccessful policies formulated by State Department Arabists predicated
on the false premise that if the United States pressured Israel to capitulate
to Arab demands, then the Arab world would recognize Israel and U.S.-Arab
relations would dramatically improve. Though history has demonstrated
that the principal obstacle to peace is the refusal of the Arab world
in general, and the Palestinian leadership in particular, to accept
Israel’s right to exist, and that U.S.-Arab relations have actually
grown stronger as the U.S.-Israel alliance has evolved, the Arabists
have clung to their erroneous views. The President has now made clear
U.S. policy will not be held hostage to Arab demands, and that he will
not accept the specious argument that supporting Israel, and standing
up for the democratic values our nations share, will damage relations
with Arab states.
By supporting Ariel
Sharon’s plan to disengage from the Gaza
Strip and begin to pull out from parts of the West
Bank, President Bush has given Israel the backing it needs to take
these very risky steps for peace.
In particular, President Bush abandoned the inaccurate
claims that settlements are illegal and the obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. He endorsed
Sharon’s intention to dismantle most settlements, but retain large
Jewish communities. He recognized that “in light of new realities
on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers,
it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations
will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.”
The President actually is the first U.S. leader since
1967 to align American policy with UN
Resolution 242. He rejected the Arab/European/State Department notion
that Israel must withdraw to the 1967
lines and committed the United States to insuring that Israel will
have “secure and defensible borders” as called for in Resolution
242.
One of the most important policy statements was to
put his administration clearly on record against the Palestinian claim
that refugees have a “right”
to move to Israel, stating that the solution to the refugee issue will
“need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state,
and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.”
Critics have suggested that by taking these positions
President Bush has forfeited America’s role as an “honest
broker” and undermined the peace
process. On the contrary, all the parties in the region still understand
the United States is the only international player that can influence
the parties, and remains the sole mediator.
By recognizing realities that others have chosen to
ignore, namely, that no Israeli government would ever dismantle cities
in the West Bank where tens of thousands of citizens live, that no Israeli
leader would ever recognize a “right” for Palestinian refugees
to move to Israel, and that no democratically elected Prime Minister
would ever withdraw to the 1967 borders, President Bush has forced the
Palestinians to abandon longstanding fantasies about what they can expect
from negotiations. The Palestinians will also have to give up the hope
that the United States or the international community will force Israel
to capitulate to their demands.
Since his June
24, 2002, speech, President Bush has accurately described the principal
obstacles to progress in peace negotiations as the failure of the Palestinian
Authority to end terror and dismantle terrorist organizations, adopt
democratic reforms, cease anti-Israel incitement, and find new leadership.
President Bush correctly observed that the Sharon Plan
is consistent with the road map and that it represents a “historic and courageous” decision
necessitated by the failure of the Palestinians to fulfill their road
map commitments.
The President reasserted America’s “steadfast
commitment to Israel’s security and to preserving and strengthening
Israel’s self-defense capability, including its right to defend
itself against terror.”
President Bush also reiterated the U.S. commitment
to the establishment of a Palestinian state and acknowledged that Sharon’s
proposal “allows for contiguous territories so that a Palestinian
state can emerge.”
The President’s statements represent perhaps
the strongest expression of U.S. support for Israel ever made, and a
vital endorsement of Israeli policy at a critical historical juncture.
To this point, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has not given a detailed response to the Sharon Plan,
but did say that he “completely” supports President Bush’s
position that Israel can keep part of the land captured in the 1967
War and that Palestinian refugees cannot go back to Israel.
It is important that the Prime Minister of Israel and
the President of the United States continue to work in close concert,
as they have since both came to power, and not allow those committed
to the failed policies of the past, whether they originate from Europe,
the UN, Russia, or the U.S. State Department, to derail a plan that
can end the stalemate, increase security for Israel, and bring the Palestinian
and Israeli people a step closer to a peaceful future.
See also:
The “Sharon Plan”
Prime Minister Sharon's
Letter to President Bush (4/14/04)
President Bush Commends
Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's Plan (4/14/04)
President Bush's Letter
to Prime Minister Sharon (4/14/04)
Statement by the President
regarding the Peace Process (4/14/04)
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