The Bush Administration's Mid-East policy has consisted of stop and goes contradictory measures that have contributed to regional instability. Unbelievably, even as recently as a year ago, with Israeli troops occupying Ramallah and Sharon's avowed desire to uproot Arafat and the PLO from the region, Bush stated that Arafat The PLO can do more, and defended Sharon and the Israeli response to terrorism! Yet, only a couple of days earlier, the United States voted for a Security Council Resolution, passed 14-0, calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities!
The public Mid-East foreign policy disagreements between President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, secretaries Powell and Rumsfeld, and their various undersecretaries’ aids, have further contributed to the confusion. While General Zinni may be a good man, the Administration has sent him to the region at inopportune times. Ditto, for the Secretary of State finally, the Bush Administration's criticism of former President Clinton's past role in the peace process is mere finger pointing. The Administration's infighting and public ineptness, emboldens extremists on both sides of the conflict.
With Sharon on one end of the spectrum and Hamas Islamic Jihad on the other, Arafat was caught in a dangerous tug of war. Both Israeli military actions and Islamic terrorists had seriously weakened his position. The Israeli occupation had played into the hands of Islamic extremists, who have attempted to sabotage the peace process for over thirty years. The Islamic terrorist acts have played into the hands of Sharon, whose enmity towards the PLO leader stretches back twenty years or more.
Ariel Sharon's anti-PLO Arafat policy, predicated on the assumption that Arafat ‘can do more’ to reign in Islamic terrorist activities, has had the exact opposite effect. Finally, Israel has yet to provide evidence that Arafat's PLO, in fact supports harbors terrorists. The United States' public........
