Roger Cohen: An ominous moment in Middle East turmoil

[Classical_Liberal]

Nowhere was that powerlessness more apparent than in Washington this month as Bush and Sharon exchanged letters altering some of the basic conditions of a potential peace without a Palestinian there to say yea or nay.

In return for a commitment to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gaza, Sharon pulled off an apparent slam-dunk. He got a new American commitment to "defensible" Israeli borders, an explicit American statement that Palestinian refugees have no right of return to Israel, and American recognition that Israel should retain some West Bank settlements because "new realities on the ground" make a return to pre-1967 borders unrealistic.

Bush did insist that any border changes be "mutually agreed," and the precedent of Sharon's Likud party accepting for the first time the withdrawal of settlements, as now seems inevitable, could be very significant in the forging of any peace.

But the televised image of a beaming Sharon and Bush determining the fate of Palestinians without consulting them outweighed such points. Perhaps the two leaders could think of nobody to invite. But a new Palestinian leadership needs to be cultivated; it will not fall from the skies.

Arab fury, from Amman to Cairo, was predictable. Some Palestinians suggested part of California be given to Mexico because lots of Mexicans live there. The rage was directed against Israel and America, the former fighting in the West Bank, the latter across Iraq......

http://www.iht.com/articles/516744.htm