11 - 17 April 2002
Issue No.581
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 April 2002 Issue No.581 |
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Better late than never
Not only did Powell show up in the region almost two weeks into the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territories but he is not to actually make it to Israel until tomorrow. Anayat Durrani in Washington on a confounding US policy
US President George W Bush has sent Secretary of State Colin Powell on an "urgent" peace mission to the region, following increasing international pressure on the US to take a more active role in the Middle East crisis.
Bush announced on 4 April that he would send Powell to the Middle East in an attempt to revive the now defunct peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. The goal of Powell's trip, Bush said, would be to work towards achieving a cease-fire and an end to the violence, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territories and the implementation of the Tenet and Mitchell peace plans. Powell's itinerary includes stops in Morocco, Egypt, Spain, and Jordan where he will meet with Arab and European leaders before arriving in Jerusalem at the end of the week.
Powell's strategy on this trip will be to meet with America's Arab allies and urge them to play a greater role in helping quell the violence and apply pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to end the suicide bombings. In Madrid, Powell was expected to meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, European Union ministers and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in a bid to reaffirm the US commitment to achieving peace in the Middle East. The meeting followed stern European criticism of the US for its failure to intervene in ending 18 months of bloodshed. Over 1,200 Palestinians and more than 400 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began.
The week-long interval between Bush announcing the Powell trip and the secretary of state's expected arrival to Israel on Thursday has been widely criticised as giving Israel a large window of opportunity in which to broaden and intensify its military campaign and attacks on Palestinian civilians. Bush called on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last Thursday to end his military campaign in the West Bank and withdraw forces from Palestinian territories, a call that Sharon has ignored. Sharon has continued his relentless campaign inside the West Bank as the Palestinian civilian death toll steadily climbs.
In a telephone conversation with Sharon on Sunday, Powell repeated Bush's call to withdraw from Palestinian areas "now." Israel's failure to comply has tested the patience of the United States, its closest ally and the provider of $3 billion of annual aid to Israel. Bush called again on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas on Monday.
"I meant what I said to the prime minister of Israel. I expect there to be withdrawal without delay," Bush told reporters during a visit to Tennessee. Late Monday, Israeli troops withdrew from two Palestinian towns after claiming to have "seriously harmed the terror infrastructure." At the same time, however, Israeli tanks were reported to have moved into other areas in the West Bank. Sharon has said that the military operation would not end until the "mission was completed" and added that when the Israeli army does withdraw, it will be to buffer zones that he plans to create on Palestinian territory, thus maintaining his grip on the West Bank.
Powell is expected to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian officials upon his arrival in Israel at week's end. Powell said on Sunday that he would meet with Arafat during his trip "if circumstances permit," words that angered Palestinian and Arab League officials who said that the American secretary of state must meet with all Palestinian representatives or none at all.
The current administration's policy on the Palestinian- Israeli conflict has been one of disengagement and isolationism ever since Bush took office, a departure from the policy of previous administrations. Some analysts have pointed to the US failure to intervene in the conflict as being a factor in the derailment of the peace talks and a virtual green light to the Sharon government's repressive policies. Though the Bush administration supports the peace process and the establishment of a Palestinian state, it has made little effort to bring Arafat and Sharon to the negotiating table. Instead, Bush has taken a passive role in dealing with the escalating violence in the region, calling on Arafat to "do more" to combat terrorism while remaining virtually silent about Israeli actions. In the months following 11 September, Bush has increasingly sided with Sharon and accepted Israel's "right" to defend itself, with only occasional criticisms of the prime minister.
In the meantime, Sharon has continued his bid to place Israel's battle with the Palestinians on the same level as America's war on terrorism. Addressing a special session of parliament, Sharon -- often using rhetoric similar to that of Bush's -- accused Arafat of heading a "regime of terror" and said that Israel would pursue its military operations "until it has dismantled Arafat's terror infrastructure and the murderers hiding in different places have been arrested."
Instead, the Bush administration's Middle East foreign policy has solely focused on Iraq. Vice-President Dick Cheney's visit to the Middle East in March was supposed to drum up support among Arab states for an attack on Saddam Hussein's country. However, as the situation in the Middle East quickly deteriorated, the Bush administration was increasingly faced with exactly the kind of conflict it has tried to avoid since day one. Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli crisis remains the most pressing issue in the region, something that European allies have been willing to address repeatedly urging the US to take a more active role in the affair.
Powell's trip to the Middle East is seen as a positive step by world leaders. Before embarking on his trip, Powell said he hoped that, at the very least, his visit would help calm the violence and possibly promote dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis. "It's going to be a difficult trip," Secretary Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press" programme. "I'm not going to come back at the end of this trip with a peace treaty in hand. I'm not even sure I'll have a cease-fire in hand. But that will be my goal, to try to help both sides out of this tragic situation in which they find themselves."
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