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Secretary Rice prods Mideast players to table
Ahead of Wednesday's Arab League summit, the US secretary of State said a Palestinian peace deal is not 'inconceivable.'
By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 28, 2007 edition
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JERUSALEM - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won a commitment from Israeli and Palestinian leaders to meet every two weeks as a way to build confidence before peace talks, but she acknowledged that genuine negotiations remain distant.
Still, this run of high-profile forays into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – Ms. Rice has visited the region four times in four months – helps to convince American allies that the US is reengaged in an issue that strikes a deep chord in the Arab world, analysts say.
The perception that the US favors Israel while allowing Palestinians' aspirations to languish is used by Islamic militants to garner support and weakens public backing for US-allied regimes such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
But, analysts say, progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front can bolster its allies who can support US efforts to stabilize Iraq and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Iran, [Osama] bin Laden, and Saddam [Hussein] before have always tried to link the Palestinian cause to their platform, because they feel the deep and strong feeling within the Arab world on these issues," says Mohammad Dajani, a political science professor at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.
"The media portrayal of Israeli incursions and Palestinian losses eventually catch up with the regimes because the masses are bombarded with the images. The US is trying to diffuse the issue. The perception that there is no solution and that no one is working for a solution creates a lot of tension," he says.
Rice's latest trip wrapped up on the eve of an Arab League summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The US is pushing its Arab allies – Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – to pitch in on the Israeli-Palestinian effort by sweetening an Arab peace plan that offers normal ties with Israel in return for a withdrawal from Palestinian territories captured in a war nearly 40 years ago.
The recent reengagement by the US on the Israeli-Palestinian track will bolster the hand of the so-called "Arab Quartet" in pushing for a more conciliatory message from the Arab League on finding a solution for Palestinian refugees. Conversely, the years of a hands-off approach for peacemaking has hurt American interests in the region, say analysts.
"Everybody has this feeling that they abandoned the Middle East for a long time, and that's partially responsible for the deterioration," says Ghassan Khatib, a former minister in the Palestinian government. "The lack of solution here and the continuation of the occupation has a radicalization effect and an anti-American effect in the region."
When George Bush entered the White House in 2001 amid the early days of the Palestinian uprising, and after President Clinton's administration failed peace summits, the administration disengaged from the nuts and bolts of peacemaking.
Rice told reporters in Jerusalem this week that her efforts have the full backing of Mr. Bush. He visited the region four years ago to initiate the US-backed "road map" peace initiative, but it was not backed up with active diplomacy and has never been implemented.
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