On May 15, President Bush had an opportunity to bring his proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement before the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature. Instead, he only used his speech to celebrate Israel’s 60 years of statehood: “It was the redemption of an ancient promise,” he asserted, “given to Abraham and Moses and David--a homeland for the chosen people of Eretz Israel.”
The President failed to mention that, certainly since the days of David and Goliath, Palestinians have a competing claim to the land, having lived there side by side with Jews for at least 2,000 years. The disappointed Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat suggested the President “should have told the Israelis no one could be free at the expense of others.”
While heaping praise upon Israel’s successes and the “unbreakable” U.S.-Israeli alliance, Mr. Bush criticized politicians, such as Barack Obama, that advocate opening a dialogue with our “enemies”--a thinly veiled reference to those who oppose the Israelis’ occupation of, and their settlements upon, Palestinian lands. Although he has no proof if and when Iran might have a nuclear weapon, Mr. Bush again took that as much for granted as Israel’s roughly 150 nukes that its neighbors view as the real nuclear threat in the Middle East.
Speaking prior to Mr. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured him that "When, eventually, we reach with the help of God an historic peace treaty between us and our Palestinian neighbors ... which fully reflects the vision which you introduced to the world in June 2002, and which is based on two states for two peoples--a Jewish state and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security--, will be approved by a vast majority of the Knesset members and will be supported by an overwhelming majority of the Israeli public. According to Haaretz, “The chamber reacted with silence and nervous laughter to this comment, which prompted a chamber walkout by hardline MKs Uri Ariel and Zvi Hendel.”
President Bush did not visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank. To talk with Mr. Bush, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had to go to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt--one of only two Arab states invited to participate in the peace process. In Egypt, Mr. Bush reiterated what he did not tell the Knesset members, namely that he was “absolutely committed” to a peace deal by the end of his term. “It breaks my heart,” he also said, “to see the vast potential of the Palestinian people really wasted.” He thought that a Palestinian state would be an opportunity to end the suffering in the Palestinian territories.
Before he left for home, the President addressed the World Economic Summit at Sharm el Sheikh. While the Arab leaders expected him to reassure them of his active engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, he used the occasion to hand them a stunning rebuke: "Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the other in jail." Then Mr. Bush called on all nations in the region “to release their prisoners of conscience, open up their political debate, and trust their people to chart their future." He also urged Arab leaders to open up more opportunities for women and to stand together against Iran's attempts to become a regional superpower.
While for the most part the President’s fault-finding with Arab government was factually correct, it obviously was not at all prudent at a time when both the U.S. and Israel need their good will if they are seriously interested in peace settlements with Israel’s Arab neighbors.