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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Media: Grinding Away (June 4, 2003) Publishers of books by shameless media manipulators should be concerned about their own reputations. By William Powers. Wealth of Nations: The Strong-Dollar Policy: Barking at the Moon (June 4, 2003) This administration has no policy on the dollar, and is right to have no policy on the dollar. By Clive Crook. Media: Too, Too Teresa (May 27, 2003) Teresa Heinz Kerry isn't just overshadowing her husband, she's becoming the story of the 2004 campaign. By William Powers. Legal Affairs: The Judicial Selection Wars: How a Truce Could Be Fashioned (May 27, 2003) President Bush should pledge not to alter the court's balance. Democrats should agree to stop the filibusters. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Political Pulse: 'Security' Redefined (May 27, 2003) The latest terror attacks show that war in Iraq was a dangerous diversion, Democrats say. By William Schneider. Social Studies: After Iraq, the Left Has a New Agenda: Contain America First (May 27, 2003) Neocons say America should always be free to act alone. Neoleftists say it should never be free to act alone. By Jonathan Rauch. More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
Preserving the Road MapEmpowering the new Palestinian government may be the only way Israel can protect itself by William Schneider .... "The road map still stands," President Bush declared last week. That it does is something of a miracle, considering that terrorists staged five attacks on Israeli targets within two days of the first meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers. The Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, carried out most of the attacks with the aim of sabotaging the road map. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could easily have reacted by repudiating the peace process, citing the long-standing Israeli policy of not rewarding terrorism. The essence of the proposed deal, after all, is that the Palestinians get a state if they give up terrorism. Bush could easily have backed Sharon up. Instead, both Bush and Sharon have followed the riskier course of keeping the road map alive. The reason is that empowering the new Palestinian government—something Hamas does not want to happen—represents the only realistic prospect for ending terrorism. If the Israeli government had torn up the road map, Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian prime minister, would have been rendered powerless. Instead, Israel's Cabinet voted to endorse the road map. Sharon is reported to have warned his ministers that rejecting the road map would trigger a crisis with the United States. The Cabinet vote was not overwhelming: Only 12 of 23 ministers voted to accept the plan (seven voted to reject it; four abstained). But for the first time ever, an Israeli government has endorsed the concept of a Palestinian state. Think of the Palestinian Authority as the government of a state—Palestine—that does not yet exist. President Yasir Arafat and Prime Minister Abbas come from the ruling Palestine Liberation Organization, which represents secular Palestinian nationalism. Think of Hamas as the leading opposition party, the party of Islamic nationalism. Hamas has two facets: It is both a murderous terrorist organization, responsible for the vast majority of suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, and a grassroots religious and social-welfare organization that assists needy Palestinians. Hamas runs a kind of competing government that is often better at providing services than the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority. Because Arafat signed the Oslo accords with Israel, Hamas does not even accept the Palestinian Authority as a legitimate government. Hamas rejects the road map for the same reason that militant Israeli nationalists reject it. They don't like where it's going—"an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel." Hamas wants an Islamic Palestinian state—not side by side with Israel, but in place of Israel. Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar defended the recent suicide attacks: "The people are not going to waste their time by hoping that America or Israel will give us our demands." Hamas glorifies suicide bombers and claims it's legitimate to kill Israeli civilians. The reason: Hamas views all Israelis as potential combatants because their country requires nearly everyone to serve in the military. "This is not a war," al-Zahar said. "This is self-defense. The war is actually a continuous campaign by the Israeli forces against the Palestinian people." Israel and the Palestinian Authority have maintained an ambivalent attitude toward Hamas. In 1991, Israel imprisoned Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, then released him and allowed him to continue his political activities. In 1996, Arafat arrested hundreds of Hamas followers. More recently, he has tried to co-opt Hamas and give it a place in the Palestinian government. There are indications that Hamas might be beginning to follow in the PLO's footsteps by becoming somewhat pragmatic. "It is forbidden in our religion to give up a part of our land, so we can't recognize Israel at all," Hamas political leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi told the BBC. "But we can accept a truce with them, and we can live side by side and refer all the issues to the coming generations." After being attacked, Israel usually aims its criticism more at Arafat than at Hamas. Last week, Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, described Hamas as "under the direct control of Arafat." Hamas without terrorism—if such a thing were possible—could be an effective counterweight to Arafat and the PLO. The idea is to separate the two facets of Hamas. Then Hamas could play a role as the opposition party in a new Palestinian democracy. First, though, it must repudiate terrorism. Neither Israel nor the United States has much influence over Hamas. Even Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza a year ago made little difference. Suicide bombings have continued. The crucial factor appears to be the cooperation of the Palestinian security authorities and other Arab governments—exactly what is called for in the road map. The empowerment of the new Palestinian government, accompanied by pressure to disarm terrorists, may be the only way Israel can protect itself. The key ingredient is relentless determination on the part of the U.S. president—the same relentless determination that Bush showed in confronting Iraq and in pursuing this year's tax cuts. He resisted political pressure to compromise the ultimate objectives. President Bush overthrew Saddam Hussein. He got his tax cuts. Keeping on the path defined by the road map is the president's next big test.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2003 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. | [an error occurred while processing this directive] | ||
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