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President's UN Speech Contains Initiative on Israel-Palestinian Peace

[Los Angeles Times] Editorial - The buried lead in Bush's UN remarks was his announcement of a potentially significant U.S. initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Bush spoke with a new urgency about the need for negotiations to achieve a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. He reaffirmed U.S. support for the "road map" for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations agreed on in 2002. And he said Secretary of State Rice would lead a renewed diplomatic effort in the region. While this might sound like diplomatic boilerplate, it amounts to a subtle change in direction. In May, Bush seemed receptive to Prime Minister Olmert's proposals for unilateral Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, a plan predicated on the idea that the road map had become irrelevant. Now the president has unfolded the map again and invited Palestinians to take advantage of it. Bush said Hamas should "serve the interests of the Palestinian people." "Abandon terror, recognize Israel's right to exist, honor agreements, and work for peace." That may sound like a stern injunction, but it also offers Hamas a route to respectability.
2006-09-20 01:00:00
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