Sunday, September 7, 2003; Page A01
Just three months ago, after President Bush held back-to-back summits by the Red Sea to promote a U.S.-backed plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, he discussed with reporters on Air Force One how presidents before him had worked for peace, but confidently added, "Maybe history is such that now we can achieve it."
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Abbas's resignation is likely to sharpen a debate within the administration about whether to embrace the long-standing Israeli desire to remove Arafat from power and send him into exile. Shunning Arafat while hoping a new leader would emerge had been the uncomfortable compromise reached in June 2002, when Bush called for new Palestinian leadership. Some officials had pushed for Arafat's ouster, and others had argued for continuing to work with Arafat.
It seems unlikely the administration will reverse course and begin to talk to Arafat again, although Secretary of State Colin L. Powell took the unusual step last month of calling on Arafat to support the peace process. But allowing the Israelis to exile Arafat would be a dramatic step that the administration may be hesitant to take as it deals with the continuing fallout from the war in Iraq.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, signaling there will be no weakening of the administration's stance against Arafat, noted in a statement yesterday: "The creation of the office of prime minister was a key turning point for the Palestinian Authority in the development of new institutions to serve all the people, not just a corrupt few tainted by terror."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36546-2003Sep6?language=printer
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