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White House Must Wait on Mideast

(AP/Newsday)Barry Schweid - Apart from President Bush's reassurances of unwavering support for Palestinian statehood, there is little his administration is set to do in the short term to try to break the Middle East deadlock. Administration strategists seem convinced that serious progress is going to take some time. First off, they must wait out Arafat's illness and then gauge whether his successors can maintain calm and provide Israel with a partner for negotiations. Second, the most promising opening for peacemaking - Sharon's projected withdrawal from Gaza - is not due to begin until next year. The plan also requires final approval by the Israeli government. Palestinian groups that have leveled deadly attacks on Israeli civilians could sabotage that opening, and it will take time to know whether new Palestinian leaders will handcuff them. Israeli officials said there are some 50 terror alerts a day, and the relative calm is due to interception by Israeli forces of would-be attackers. Both Bush and Sharon are loath to start negotiations amid violence. James Phillips, Middle East specialist at the Heritage Foundation, said Arafat has "really poisoned the atmosphere for prospective peace talks, promising so many things and failing to deliver so often, he eroded Israeli trust in a Palestinian negotiating partner." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made clear Friday that the U.S.-backed "road map," and not some new approach, remains the administration's vehicle for getting to the peace table.
2004-11-08 00:00:00
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