If the Arab world didn't like anything the President said last night, they're really going to hate what he said today. American dedication to the preservation of Israel's security as a Jewish State, no return to the '49 borders "in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers," and, certainly not least, the settlement of palestinian arab refugees within the borders of a palestinian state and not within the State of Israel. The text of the letters exchanged between the two leaders, which spells out in more detail the quid pro quo for Ariel Sharon's Gaza retreat plan, will be published later today. So will it do the job?
As predicted prior to the meeting, President Bush stopped short of an express rejection of the "right of return," and he dodged a question from an Israeli reporter trying to pin him down on it. But there isn't much space between his formulation and an outright rejection. And there isn't much doubt about who bears the burden of action in the President's eyes at this point, either. Israel has made an important step. It's up to the palestinians and the Arab world to prove their good intentions. That's what he said.
I'm not comfortable with the Gaza retreat plan. I think, on its face, it's a huge mistake for a number of reasons. One of them is that unilateral withdrawals don't have a good track record in the Middle East and especially not when they can be ascribed to the success of terrorism. Another is that Sharon has failed to even suggest how the Gaza Strip might be prevented from becoming a magnet for terrorists and weapons of all stripes and a launching pad for massive attacks against Israel once the withdrawal is complete. I'd feel better if he'd share that plan.
I'm not the one who has to be convinced, though. Sharon will have three weeks to bring enough of his own party on board to push this thing through or try to join forces with Shimon Peres to do it without them. They're the ones who have to live with it, after all. Regardless of the outcome, though, President Bush's statements of today represent an important shift in the right direction for American policy.
