Uri Avnery, 7 June 2003, Gush Shalom
Why this sudden enthusiasm for personal intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
There is a purely political aspect: in Afghanistan, anarchy reigns. In Iraq, all the high-sounding plans about a "democratic Iraqi government" have been shelved. In the United States, ugly news-stories are circulating, insinuating that the administration deliberately deceived the public about the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Bush needs an uncontested achievement in the Middle East. What could be more beautiful on television than the picture of the President of the United States standing between the Prime Ministers of Israel and Palestine with a background of blue sea and soaring palms, bringing peace to the two suffering peoples?
For this purpose, Bush has set in motion a brutal steamroller that crushes all opposition, Palestinian or Israeli. Bush practically dictated all four speeches himself.
This is not a one-day stand. It will go on until the American election in November 2004. Bush wants to be reelected, and this time with a real majority. Therefore, we shall probably be living for a year and a half in the shadow of the Bush initiative, enforced by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Both Israelis and Palestinians will have to conduct their business within this framework.
And please remember: Bush is no Clinton. Clinton was an attractive, sympathetic, very intelligent, idealistic and devoted president. He really wanted to solve the problem. But he suffered from a certain lack of seriousness and moral fiber. Bush, on the other hand is not sophisticated. If anything he is rather primitive. But he has a brutal willpower that does not suffer contradiction. When he wants something, he unleashes the power of the United States to attain it.
Now he wants a conspicuous achievement in the Israeli-Palestinian arena, an achievement that will look good on television and be clear to every American voter. Anyone who gets in his way will be crushed.
It is impossible to know how long this pressure will last. Some may hope that it will go on till the final agreement. Others may count in weeks. But in our desperate situation, every week is important.
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