Wake-Up Time For Rice

Jewish Week

The Editors

Is Condoleezza Rice the last person who still believes that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is possible by January? As the Secretary of State makes her way to the Mideast for yet another round of talks, it would be wise for her and the Bush administration to acknowledge the obvious: that no agreement is possible at a time when the leaders of the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian Authority are either lame ducks (George Bush and Ehud Olmert) or have little clout or leverage to begin with (Mahmoud Abbas).

Better to put a halt to the Alice-in-Wonderland quality to these deliberations and start dealing with more practical concerns like how best to set up a framework for the next U.S. administration

to proceed, and how to cope with a divided Palestinian people. The fact that Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a terror group committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, cannot be ignored because it is inconvenient. Where is the fresh thinking on how Israel can negotiate with a Palestinian Authority that, at best, can speak only for Palestinians on the West Bank, while at war at times with Hamas?

The Bush administration pledged in Annapolis last November to help effect a peace agreement before the President leaves office. But Washington soon fell victim to the same problems that have plagued would-be Mideast peacemakers since Oslo 15 years ago.

Namely, there is still no meaningful mechanism to monitor and effectively act on violations by either side, most notably the Palestinian unwillingness or inability to disarm terror elements. And the Palestinians continue to blame Israel for its settlement policy.

On the eve of Rice’s latest foray to the Mideast, Israel agreed as a sign of goodwill to free 200 Palestinian prisoners, including at least two with “blood on their hands.” But such gestures are more likely to evoke in Palestinians a sense of Israeli weakness than of appreciation and respect.

Rice no doubt will find Olmert and Abbas ready to talk, setting off another round of diplomatic and political rhetoric about the importance of negotiations. But none of the leading players in this drama can overcome the reality that they have overplayed the peace hand, at least for now. They should be focusing on putting the process on hold and paving the way for new and creative paradigms to deal with a very old problem: refusal to acknowledge a legitimate Jewish state in the Middle East.