*EPF502 08/31/01
Rising Violence in Mideast Triggers Broad Debate over U.S. Policy
(Divergent opinions voiced in U.S. media) (870)
By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The rising violence between Israelis and Palestinians has triggered a debate in the United States over what more, if anything, the Bush administration can do to help resolve the crisis.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Newshour, for example, brought together on August 29 four specialists to share their views on whether the administration is taking an assertive enough role in the Middle East.

Three of the panelists -- Henry Siegman, director of the U.S.-Middle East Project at the Council of Foreign Relations; Jim Hoagland, a columnist for the Washington Post; and Wayne Owens, a former Democratic congressman and now president of the Center of Middle East Peace and Economic Development -- said the Bush administration needs to take a more activist role in mediating the second intifada, which erupted 11 months ago. Harvey Sicherman, a former State Department official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations and now president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, defended the Bush administration's approach.

Owens said the United States, "as the only real superpower," has "a big opportunity" and "a great obligation" to more forcefully address the Middle East peace issue.

Owens advocated that President Bush appoint a special emissary to the Middle East, such as former Senator George Mitchell. Mitchell mediated the Northern Ireland conflict and headed a committee of international statesmen who drew up a set of recommendations for putting the Palestinians and Israelis back on the path toward peace. The four main Mitchell recommendations -- a cessation of violence, a cooling off period, confidence-building measures and a resumption of political negotiations -- have been endorsed by Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.

"If the United States would send him (Mitchell) ... as a special emissary, he could ... have the best chance of bringing the parties together and moving them along the path that his committee set down," Owens said.

Henry Siegman said the United States "has not really engaged seriously and as deeply as only it can and as is necessary to break this impasse" between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Siegman's view, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "does not intend to return to serious political negotiations for another ten to twenty years" and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is "prepared to resort to the worst kind of violence to achieve his ends."

Siegman said the United States needs to insist on some form of political framework because exhortations to end the violence are not enough.

Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland said the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has put at risk U.S. interests in the Middle East. Hoagland said the Bush administration needs to get involved at a much higher level and "draw some red lines, to say these are things that cannot be done without affecting American interests."

Hoagland said that the Secretary of State is the right person to intervene and "make it clear that American interests will be protected." Hoagland said both the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have reasons to keep the fighting going.

Sharon would have to freeze the Jewish settlement construction if the Mitchell Committee recommendations were implemented, and Arafat is using violence to try to "produce a dramatic collapse ... that forces an intervention that he thinks will help him out," he said.

In contrast to the other three panelists, Harvey Sicherman said the problem was not an issue of level of U.S. involvement but rather "that the parties don't have trust in each other that they really want to make a deal." He said the Secretary of State has traveled to the region and President Bush has spoken by telephone with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Sicherman said President Bush should not jeopardize the prestige of his office by getting involved in the dispute if the Israelis and Palestinians themselves do not want to make a deal.

"I don't see that it pays ... for the president to risk his prestige without knowing that at least a minimum can be achieved," Sicherman said.

The Bush administration says it is deeply engaged in the Middle East. Administration spokesman point to the administration's frequent appeals to the parties to implement the Mitchell recommendations, the dispatch of CIA Director George Tenet to the region to help make security arrangements, and frequent meetings in the region between U.S. officials and Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.

Joining the growing chorus of voices advocating greater U.S. involvement are Senator Paul Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, and the Washington Post.

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor August 28, Wellstone said, "only a third party like the United States can break this impasse and create conditions that could enable a return to negotiations."

In an editorial August 29, the Washington Post wrote: "With diplomacy stagnant, violence escalating and partisans on both sides demanding ever more drastic military steps, the Bush administration needs to forcefully reaffirm what ought to be obvious: that neither Israelis nor Palestinians will ever achieve security, stable borders or full international acceptance except by peacefully compromising with each other."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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