A discussion about President Bush's visit to the Middle East

with Ghaith al-Omari and Dennis Ross
in Current Affairs
on Thursday, January 10, 2008 * * * * *

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A discussion about President Bush's visit to the Middle East with Dennis Ross, Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton & Ghaith al-Omari, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.

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Keywords:
Palestinian
Palestine
Jerusalem
Israeli
Israeli occupation
George Bush

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  • Comments 9
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    1. David Dzidzikashvili  03/19/2008 03:02 PM Report

      Middle East is a region that nobody has an answer to its violence and wars. I don't think anyone will be able to maintain long-term peace, untill there is poverty, hunger and economic hardship in the region. Palestinians are in the worst position. There has to be a new approach and concentration towards fostering of economic ties. Jobs & money is the answer, at least temporary answer...

    2. David Dzidzikashvili  03/19/2008 03:02 PM Report

      Middle East is a region that nobody has an answer to its violence and wars. I don't think anyone will be able to maintain long-term peace, untill there is poverty, hunger and economic hardship in the region. Palestinians are in the worst position. There has to be a new approach and concentration towards fostering of economic ties. Jobs & money is the answer, at least temporary answer...

    3. David Dzidzikashvili  03/19/2008 03:02 PM Report

      Middle East is a region that nobody has an answer to its violence and wars. I don't think anyone will be able to maintain long-term peace, untill there is poverty, hunger and economic hardship in Palestine. There has to be a new approach and concentration towards fostering of economic ties. Jobs & money is the answer, at least temporary answer...

    4. Concerned  01/14/2008 05:51 PM Report

      President GWB's visits to Israel, Palestinian territories, and the region are just another best move for this administration besides the signing of the greenhouse reducing effect mission in Bale(Indonesia) since he has taken the office of the presidency. This visit to the region would redeem his mistake of following faulty intelligence with respect to Iraq as many of the issue in the region is assumed to have been associated with terrorism. Since the war with Iraq, the Arab media and Arab elites throughout the Islamic world have been criticizing this administration for not seeking solution to the Palestinian issue. His visit to the holly land will boost his image and the Islamic societies' confidence in his vision for the region. Israelis are tired of one wrong move after another, they are anxious about what President GWB is bringing to the peace table this timeround; a large segment os Palestinians are already suspicious over the visits. But many throughout the world wishing peace to the region are happy to see the leader of the free world looking into the dark and hopeless region with a night goggle. The problem is that the three presidents are the least favorites in their respective nations; Abas may be in a better foundation than the two leaders Israel and America. At least Abas is winning over the moderate Palestinians, but he needs some tangible results for his people to give him all the support. The other problem is night goggles may give one general picture of what is far ahead, but the details are less clear even with close proximities. I think President GWB is too optimistic to see the hurdles below. As an important issue as the Middle East peace process, the amount of time president GWB has in office to seriously dent the problem is less than a year and old proverb says the devil is in the details unless they continue on past peace process already started it would be hard to start a new one and complete it while GWB is still in office. In recent memory, President Clinton brought the two willing leaders closer to each other, but at the end Arafat welched. That has been the most costly mis-step in the recent history of the region. Rabin's (May God rest his soul in peace) assassination has been the main reason for costlier price Israeli citizens had to pay, the 1998 suicide bombers on busy busses causing many deaths and a lasting terror for the citizens of Israel plus war with Lebanon. All those missed steps have changed the dynamics of the peace process. Today the two sides have more resentment toward each other than they ever have. Despite all these missed opportunities and hurdles, President GWB is pushing ahead with hope to brining the two. I wish him a sincere luck, because he needs it, I really hope at the end of his tenure, if he cannot find a lasting peace at least he will leave them with steps closer to a livable equilibrium whereby all can co-exist and have a path to crack on the peace process without imposition of pressure.

    5. Jack Aguilera  01/13/2008 10:39 PM Report

      It pISSes me off that I help pay Rose's salary when I contribute money to public television and and then he turns around and trys to sell me these videos. I'm not contributing anymore! Dammit, you have enough advertising on these pages.

    6. Wendy Minot  01/11/2008 07:15 PM Report

      Where do I get the Podcast?

    7. wminot  01/11/2008 07:14 PM Report

      How do I get the podcast?

    8. Adam Khan  01/11/2008 05:58 PM Report

      As a right-of-center Israeli, I was expecting to be outraged by these two. Instead, I found them both dispassionate yet passionate, pitch perfect, with both men clearly articulating some of the main complexities of the moment. And they seemed eminently reasonable towards both sides.

      At the end, how exciting to hear the Bush Doctrine being espoused in a Palestinian accent!

      And despite being a big Bush supporter, I found myself nodding completely in agreement with Mr Ross's frustration that something real should have been laid in the ground for this visit.

      It would have been nice to see Bush take Blair around on these press conferences to annoint him in front of the world's cameras as chief head-bangerer-together.

    9. Ariel  01/11/2008 04:44 PM Report

      Kudos to both men, who seem to have the right answers on most of these issues. Mr. Ross in stating that the public skepticism must be dealt with before any "statecraft" can occur and Mr. al-Omari's views on Hamas and the idea that they dont need to make any sudden reforms right now that the outside world thinks they should. The concept that a failing peace process will validate the Hamas cause is a worrisome proposal because as we've seen for roughly 60 years, the peace process hasn't come to fruition, and as Mr. al-Omari correctly states, unilateralism has failed as a security measure on both sides.

      Therefore, we should count on strong players in the region to deal with the Palestinians, such as the Saudis, Egyptians or the Jordanians. The Iranians and Syrians have a duty to confront and moderate the Hezbollah and Hamas, because as proxies to those nations, they will listen to their 'leaders'. As for Israel, they must rely on Europe and the U.S. to support them and guide them through this process. The bottom line? This is more than 2-state problem, it has roots scattered throughout the region and the world. Its not feasible to have Olmert and Abbas work a solution, for they have weak support and little influence over events on the ground. Instead, if the true catalysts and drivers that have a strong leverage in the conflict, such as the terror supporting nations (Iran and Syria) and the U.S.'s influence on Israel, don't initiate a more a solid framework, this conflict will not be resolved anytime soon.