King Abdullah to Congress: Time to Push for Mideast Peace

Speaking to a joint session of Congress last week about the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jordan's King Abdullah gave a speech notable not only for its content, but for the sense of urgency with which it was delivered.

The festering Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Abdullah argued, was the greatest threat to regional peace.  The King was not overlooking the obvious security threat that the civil war in Iraq poses, or the dangers of Iran's nuclear program to US and moderate Arab interests; he was focusing on the big picture.  The persistence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, poisons the hearts and minds of the entire Muslim world, and the international community's inability to effectively resolve it plays into the hands of extremists and Islamic radicals.  He did not mince words: "I come here today as your friend to tell you that [the Israeli-Palestinian clash] is the core issue. And this core issue is not only producing severe consequences for our region, it is producing severe consequences for our world."

That the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the greatest destabilizer in the region is a matter for debate.  But the one place where Abdullah's analysis of the danger and call for urgency is completely correct is in Israel.

The deteriorating Palestinian situation and the absence of a vibrant peace process threatens not only Israel's immediate security and its demographic balance as a Jewish state, but also its ability to take strategic action to defend itself against threats like Hezbollah or Iran.  And conditions on the Palestinian front will not get better without a resurgence of diplomacy: the violence and political stagnation of the past six years has produced what Steven Erlanger of the New York Times has reported as "the lost generation of Palestine: it's most radical, most accepting of violence and most despairing."

Furthermore, the Israeli media reported this week that intelligence officials do not expect the Palestinian ceasefire with Israel in Gaza to hold much longer under the present conditions of economic siege and political uncertainty.  The Israeli security services are preparing for possible military activity there, an operation that is sure to be dangerous and costly.

That's why Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has indicated a readiness to take another look at the Arab League Initiative for a comprehensive peace settlement between Israel and all of the Arab states, including the creation of a Palestinians state in the West Bank and Gaza.  "We hope very much that during the meeting of the heads of Arab states in Riyadh [at the end of the month], the positive elements expressed in the Saudi initiative will be validated and perhaps will strengthen chances for negotiations between us and the Palestinians," he told his cabinet last week.   Israelis understand the need for progress - maybe even dramatic progress - to guard against a complete collapse of the situation in Palestine.  63% of Jewish Israelis (and 86% of Arab Israelis), according to a Peace Index poll conducted by Ephraim Yaar and Tamar Hermann of the Steinmetz Center for Peace at Tel Aviv University, believe that the current situation is dangerous for Israel and that political progress is needed.  Without a doubt the urgency that King Abdullah spoke of in his address to Congress is real for many Israelis, and they agree with his call for more diplomacy.

How has Congress reacted to this timely call for strategic political engagement to lower the threats to Israel, the United States, and moderates in the region?  Unfortunately, not very constructively.

The very week after Abdullah delivered his message of urgency - and in the immediate aftermath of an Olmert-Abbas meeting and in advance of a renewed push of the Arab League Initiative - a letter prepared by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and John Ensign (R-NV) is circulating in the Senate advocating a cutoff of contacts and funding with the entire Palestinian Authority, including President Abbas.  At a time when the US should be engaging Abbas and moderates like Salam Fayyad (the presumptive PA finance minister) with a new-found energy, these Senators are sending a signal - nonbinding, but consequential nonetheless - that there is no difference between Palestinian moderates and extremists and that the best strategy for the United States is to ignore all of them altogether.

This is a strategy unlikely to make the US or Israel safer. Fortunately, there are signs that the Bush administration - not to mention many Senators - will have none of it.

Though wary of Hamas's role in the Palestinian government, the Bush administration has reportedly been in contact with Saudi Arabia as it prepares to host the Arab League summit at the end of the month, where it will reportedly re-launch the Arab League Initiative first put forward in 2002. 

And even though Hamas may join a unity government with Fatah, the Bush administration has pushed for more bilateral talks between Abbas and Olmert, understanding that these talks - even when they fail to produce anything big and only result in moderate improvements in day-to-day Palestinian life - lay the groundwork for any future process, whether its under the aegis of the Arab league Initiative or the United States on a bilateral basis.

Congress should join Israel in seizing the Saudi Initiative and working to create the conditions that will allow the administration to run with the initiative once it is "re-released."  That includes working for an economic resurgence in Palestine (e.g. tailoring international sanctions so they fall on Hamas and not on all Palestinians, helping to ensure reliable transportation throughout the West Bank and at the Gaza border crossings), political progress (including prisoner swaps), and increased aid for moderates like Abbas and enhanced training for his security forces.

Abdullah's speech was about looking forward and cutting off threats to US, Israeli, and yes, Jordanian security before it's too late.  That starts with a serious effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  It's time Congress got the message.