GEORGE BUSH has a novel approach to the Middle East; he tells the truth. Yesterday’s statement wasn’t filled with diplomatic jargon. It didn’t try to reconcile six different policies through artful fudging. Instead the statement has the ring of honest conviction. This has a number of practical advantages. First, when Arab rulers come down to Crawford, there won’t be any need to shade U.S. policy this way or that to meet the exigencies of the moment. The president will be able to point to his vision and say, This is what I believe. Second, the Middle East policy the president articulated yesterday is one the American people can be proud of. The president stood up for democracy, rule of law, economic freedom and the right of every human being to mold their own life. In other words, he applied American ideals to the Middle East. Finally, the honest approach may actually produce peace. For three decades, the leaders of the region and the outside interveners have artfully conspired to hide the obvious. They have been engaged in–indeed addicted to–a four-dimensional chess game all built on the fantasy that if only the right lines can be drawn on a map, if only the right intricate sequence of phases can be crafted, then we will have a process that will lead to peace. This is a wonk’s fantasy. It has kept the diplomats busy. It has allowed them to play artful games. It has been an abject failure. The diplomats do their summits; the people die and suffer. Here are a few of the truths President Bush told or implied in his speech Monday afternoon. 1) Peace will only come if Palestine becomes a normal place. Palestine and Israel are jammed into one tiny strip of land. It is simply not possible for a democracy, like Israel, to live peacefully in such close quarters with a thuggish dictatorship which does not respect the rule of law or give its own people the right to shape their lives. The clash of systems makes conflict inevitable. 2) Yasser Arafat will never make peace with Israel. In calling for Arafat’s removal, Bush is reading the lessons of history. For thirty years Arafat has been a force for violence and disorder. When he led Palestinian forces in Jordan, his regime was marked by chaos, corruption, and violence. It was the same in Lebanon. It was the same in the West Bank under Oslo. The man has devoted his life to the armed struggle against Israel. It was possible three years ago to think that perhaps in his dotage he would change. But after he rejected Israel’s offer at Camp David, it became no longer possible to even think that. He is what he is–a terrorist, a liar, an instigator of chaos and suffering. 3) A Palestinian state will never be created by terror. In the European press and in European halls of power, there is great sympathy for the suicide bombings as a legitimate response to occupation. Leave aside the morality of murdering school children on buses; such things will obviously not bother some, when those school children are Jewish. Just think practically. There is no likelihood that the suicide bombings will ever induce Israel to yield to Hamas or Fatah. As a military strategy terrorism is a flop. Bush tried to hammer that point home to Europeans and Arabs alike. He also made it as plain as day that the U.S. at least, will never countenance terror, on both moral grounds and practical grounds. 4) Israel cannot keep many of its settlements indefinitely. West Bank settlers argue that no section of the earth should be forbidden to Jews, especially holy cities, such as Hebron. That’s true in the abstract, but in reality those places do not look and feel like Israel. their presence requires armed protection that looks and feels like occupation to the Palestinians. President Bush used the word “occupation” a few times in the remarks, and it was startling, but he is right to call for Israeli withdrawal. 5) The democratization of the Arab world can begin on the banks of the Jordan. Palestine is, in fact the most promising place. Jordan is semi-democratic and Israel is democratic. If a democratic zone could be established there, then people across the Arab world would begin to ask, why not here? That’s the real recipe for peace. I’m not sure the world is up to the level of Bush’s speech. Already we hear Palestinian spokesman trying to suck the U.S. back into the morass of the four-dimensional chess game. Already we hear the cries that Arafat is a democratic leader (as if a chairman for life who undermines the rule of law, violates all election standards, controls the media, and does not allow proper opposition, could ever be truly democratic. Already we hear nervousness from our allies. They have been funding Arafat for years, enjoying his revolutionary image; they are not sure they want to give him up. And I wonder if the U.S. State Department will really break its addiction to summit meetings with Arafat and his regime. How many times have we heard State Department spokesman say that Arafat is the only interlocutor and therefore we must deal with him? Still, this is yet another time President Bush has given us cause to be proud of him. He has spoken the truth in a straight and simple way. He has upheld our cherished national ideals. He has reminded the world that the United States does not wield its power simply for its own enrichment, but in service to a larger set of principles, and that those principles are valid everywhere, and they should be fought for everywhere. David Brooks is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.
