By Mowahid Hussain Shah
If the past is a guide, the new Israel-Palestine Roadmap to Peace may lead to a dead-end.
The Quartet - the US, EU, UN, and Russia - presented its roadmap in April 2003. Can it succeed when similar ideas flopped in the past? Its success requires sustained and even-handed American commitment - a huge task, especially during Election Year 2004 when all and sundry shall be vying to be the most allied ally of Israel.
There is also the question of political will. It is simply not there. In addition, other complicating factors are at work. According to an opinion column in London’s daily Independent newspaper of June 13:
We are constantly hearing about the “Jewish lobby” in the US, but evangelical Christians (all 40 million of them) make up a far, far more powerful domestic constituency in America, and they relentlessly oppose compromise with the Palestinians with every cent and every vote they have.
The Christian Right forms the bedrock of President Bush’s political constituency.
While all of this is developing, worldwide perspectives on the US are slowly shifting. An international survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project depicted evidence of broad skepticism on US motivations and moves. The Global Attitudes survey comprised 16,000 interviews from April 28 to May 15 in 20 countries of Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere. It was chaired by Madeleine Albright, President Clinton’s Secretary of State and UN envoy. She was “shocked at the numbers” on how many are disapproving of US power and policy. (Readers may go to: people-press.org).
With the foregoing backdrop, it is unlikely that the US commitment to a Mideast roadmap to peace shall be seen as credible, durable, and reliable.
Then, too, Iraq refuses to leave the radar screen. The House Armed Services Committee of the US Congress has recently been told by Paul Wolfowitz that “there’s a guerilla war there . . . we continue to face an adaptive and determined enemy.” Hardly a neat postscript to peace.
