What He Said and Where He Said It
President Bush said very little new on his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the exception of an interesting twist on a previously made point about Palestinian refugees.
President Bush said very little new on his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with the exception of an interesting twist on a previously made point about Palestinian refugees.
As he has in the past, the President called for a Palestinian state (“long overdue”), adherence to the Road Map and Annapolis, institution building in the PA, Arab acceptance of the permanence of Israel, and he reiterated that no Palestinian state would be born in terror. He emphasized that the 1949 armistice line would not be a border – peace “will require mutually agreed adjustments” – and reaffirmed not only his, but also America’s commitment to Israel’s security. He reaffirmed too the necessity of the PA “confronting terrorists and dismantling terrorist infrastructure,” but skipped over the Palestinian civil war. He called for “ending settlement expansion and removing unauthorized outposts,” both previously expressed positions. (He did not call settlements “obstacles to peace” or call for their removal.) He mentioned Jerusalem, but offered no prescription, simply noting, “finding a solution to this issue will be one of the most difficult challenges on the road to peace, but that is the road we have chosen to walk.”
So it wasn’t exactly what he said that was slightly disconcerting, it was having him say all of those things in the space of a few hours, and say some of the difficult ones standing by a smiling Abu Mazen.
Mr. Bush did open the door to a pet issue of ours was when he said, “I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue.” (Nixing the so-called “right of return.”) A new “international mechanism” may be a way to rid the Palestinians of the yoke of UNRWA, the UN Agency that has perpetuated the misery of Palestinian refugees from generation to generation by preventing their resettlement. UNRWA rules about “temporary camps” created much of the poverty the world has come to associate with Palestinians and UNRWA rules created the extra-territorial pockets in Lebanon that sheltered international terrorists and, last summer, Fatah al-Islam. Both Hamas and Fatah have used UNRWA facilities in the PA territories to shelter terrorists as well.
We repeat our suggestion that Palestinian refugees be moved from the UNRWA mandate to the UNHCR mandate, which is to resettle refugees in countries that agree to have them. Move the money with them. Add “compensation” money. Give Palestinians a real understanding that Israel is permanent and legitimate and there is no wholesale “right of return.” Then give them a real choice about how to proceed with their future – by going to the new Palestinian state, or by going elsewhere.
We are deeply skeptical about the potential for success in presidential diplomacy in the last year of a term, and we believe the divided Palestinian Authority cannot and will not make a secure and durable peace with Israel (even a unitary PA under Arafat couldn’t and didn’t). But we do believe the President means to move the process forward. Helping Palestinians toward accommodation with reality through resettlement and financial compensation would remove an impediment to future peacemaking and help cement the President’s legacy as a friend of both Palestinians and the State of Israel.