WASHINGTON, 8 October 2003 — The Israeli attack on an alleged terrorist training camp in Syria in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a Haifa cafe is the latest blow to the teetering US-backed road map peace process.
The plan got off to a seemingly good start in June, after US President George W. Bush visited the region and won commitments from Palestinian and Israeli leaders for what appeared to be the best chance in years to gain ground toward a settlement.
But the progress was undone and the plan was derailed by yet another cycle of violence carried out by both sides.
Palestinian groups abandoned their summer cease-fire following Israeli attempts —some successful — on the lives of Palestinian leaders and the Palestinian Authority’s failure to crackdown on groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Embraced by Washington as a man committed to peace, first-ever Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas soon resigned, the Intifada has since resumed and Yasser Arafat has re-emerged as the central Palestinian figure in the peace process — even though the White House has shunned him.
As the so-called road map unraveled, the Bush administration began demanding that Arafat relinquish control over Palestinian Authority security forces to a new prime minister, and re-emphasized the need for Palestinians to crack down on terrorism as the first step to resuming the peace process.
Meanwhile, Washington offered only mild criticism of Israel, whose military actions often seemed to escalate the crisis. Little has changed in the US position.
Bush on Monday did not directly criticize Israel for the attack on the camp, saying only that he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and told him Israel had the right to defend itself but must also consider the consequences of doing so.
“I made it very clear to the prime minister — like I have consistently done — that Israel’s got a right to defend herself, that Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland,” Bush said. “However, I said that it’s very important that any action that Israel take should avoid escalation and creating higher tensions.”
Bush said that Palestinians must act against “terrorist” groups, but did not specify steps for Israel to meet its obligations under the road map. With little success, the United States has been pressuring Damascus to close the offices of Palestinian groups in Syria, and has urged the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to cut off funding for the organizations.
Bush in public remarks and US Secretary of State Colin Powell during a trip to the Syrian capital have sought to leverage the quick toppling of Saddam Hussein to bring Syria in line and focus on an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
With the peace process collapsing, the Bush administration has distanced itself. The US ambassador who had been in Israeli monitoring implementation of the road map has gone on vacation. Bush’s pledge to have US officials relentlessly pressure both sides to meet their obligations has gone unfulfilled, leaving the ball in the Palestinians’ court until they move against “terrorism.”
