Middle East Mediation

USA Today:  Bringing peace to the Middle East has been a goal of every president since Harry Truman. Some, like Jimmy Carter, made significant gains. Others, like Bill Clinton, had fleeting successes but ultimately failed to achieve a lasting settlement. Now President Bush is plunging in with a final-year-in-office bid to broker a deal in which Palestinians and Israelis would live side by side in separate states.

The hard truth about what's needed has been clear for years. The core problems include how to guarantee Israel's security; how to divide Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital; how to compensate Palestinian refugees who were forced from their homes; and how to create a unified Palestinian state.  CONTINUED

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All the handshakes, shuttle diplomacy, boiler room politics, carrots and sticks, promises, and thinly veiled threats mean nothing if they only involve the senior policymakers:  just ask Yitzhak Rabin how individual citizens can react if they don't agree with a policy.

No, I'm not saying everyone has to join hands and exchange hugs for peace to work, but you need to start at the grassroots level.  Nose out what the different neighborhoods want, put your thumb on the pulse of local political players, get the word on the street.  That's the kind of efforts paying off in Iraq:  when the people feel like we're listening to them, not to just the whims of distant functionaries.

Sure, individuals might like the idea of a separate state, but odds are they want jobs first, with good schools, medical care and infrastructure.  Both sides need opportunity, not some vague slaps on the back at Camp David.

Comments

[antitool]

Pidge--

It's hard to start at the grassroots level when the soil is no good. I'm referring specifically to the rampant corruption in the Palestinian Authority. These guys are never held to task, and I suspect it's because no one wants to be seen as beating up on the underdog Palestinians--any more than necessary, that is.

One indicator: Look at the amount of aid over the years. Jordan has received from us in three decades what the Palestinians got in 10 years. Unlike the nascent "Palestine", Jordan is actually a pretty nice place now. Hussein and Abdullah put the money to good use. Abu Mazen and Yassir Arafat bought BMWs for their cronies.

[MOGS]

"Jimmy Carter madse significant gains" - that's rich.