My Proposal for Middle East Peace

I am not going to point to any specific articles that point to my own pessimism on the prospects for peace in the Israeli/Palestine issue. To prove my point would take numerous links. Let's just say that if you had been paying attention and you were reasonable, you would be pessimistic too.

I am going to point to one link however that gives best voice to my own frustrations about the prospects for peace. (See here) a Washington Post article written by Edith M. Lederer that reports that the United States has withdrawn a UN Security Council resolution proposal that could have added momentum to the Annapolis effort.

Well, we are witnessing a retrenchment of forces after Annapolis. Both sides, after participating, are starting to state to their constituencies "But I didn't really mean...".

And now Israel has won US action to get the United States' proposed United Nations Security Council resolution on the issue pulled. A proposal that almost surely would have won backing from the Security Council.

We're being drug back into the mud people. The same uncompromising positions that have troubled us in the past are being resurrected.

Now I will admit that Israel might be correct in her fears that such a resolution might remove the US from a mediation role with that role then being assumed by the United Nations (although if this was to happen it would only be because the US failed). So if Israel is not wanting the UN involved then I insist that the United States is going to have to seize the wheel. We can not expect to reach our destination of peace if we allow one of the two squabbling kids in the back seat to do the driving. Do you get my point?

If the goal of the Bush Administration is to actually achieve a peace deal (or make it painfully obvious which side is "unreasonable") before he leaves office, he (he being Dubyah himself) is going to have to take an active role in the negotiations.

I suggest he get a copy of what was negotiated at Taba after the failed Clinton efforts. What was offered to Yassar Arafat and the Palestinian People during the Clinton attempt was inadequate. What was offered to Yassar at Taba, while improved, was also inadequate. Let "our side" improve the offer to where even Yassar, if he had been reasonable, would have been a fool to turn it down. It is my opinion no such offer was made to the Palestinian People at Taba.

Negotiations should be opened from the point of agreements that were reached at Taba. What should be offered to the Palestinian People is an improvement on that which was offered back then. Chief amongst the improvements is that any Israeli settlements remaining within Palestinian areas will be subject to Palestinian laws and Palestinian governance. We are not wanting a map that looks like polka dots.

Now George Dubyah Bush has at times spoken out in support of what I myself am supporting. Only problem is that what we have heard was words and little action. Now Dubyah is promising action, and if the promise is mere words then I just wish he would tell us: "It was just all a joke." Failure after such a broad spectacle of support at Annapolis is only going to make the problem that much more difficult for the next President to resolve.

I applaud George Dubyah Bush for the spectacle of Annapolis. It was a great spectacle. Now let us see the substance.