The visit to Washington by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can be seen as mold breaking. Of course, his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, had beenthere before, but not while George W. Bush has been president. For Abbas the treatment could not have been more different. The red carpet was rolled out; President Bush has pledged $50 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help build homes and infrastructure in Gaza and is to send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back to the Middle East to discuss Israel’s pullout from Gaza.
But all this is more symbolic than real. There is no promise that Rice will force the Israelis to keep to their Gaza pullout timetable, already delayed to Aug. 17; there is nothing about the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; as for the $50 million, it will hardly scratch the surface of infrastructural needs. It is a very small portion of the hardly overgenerous $350 million Palestinian aid earmarked by Congress which the PA had hoped would be channeled through it but which is obviously going to got through the aid agencies as planned. Clearly Washington is prepared to make gestures but it still does not quite trust the PA.
That is an opportunity lost. Regardless of the reasons for previous distrust, this is a time to be daring, to seize the moment. Washington could have been more visionary. It presumably realizes that the visit is not without its risks for Abbas. If he returns with nothing concrete or substantial (and more than just money), it will lose him support. There is, in any event, a real danger for any Arab leader in being praised by the Americans. Abbas cannot afford to be seen as Washington’s dupe, doing their will and getting nothing serious in return. He is not going to be that, but his political opponents at home, especially in Hamas, will try every trick in the book to undermine his support in the upcoming elections. If they think he has been shortchanged by the Americans, they will throw it against him.
As to aid, it is a two-edged sword. Without it to build more homes and create jobs, there is no hope of ending the physical misery and the hopelessness faced by ordinary Palestinians which serves as the terrorists’ recruiting sergeant. But US dollars, even hundreds of millions of them, are not going to impress the Palestinians. They are going to see aid an attempt to buy them off. They would not be wholly wrong. The very fact that Washington has suddenly channeled to the PA a small portion of the $350 million planned aid implies that they will channel more if it sees the PA implementing policies it approves. In other words, carry out Washington’s wishes and it is carrots all round.
There is no reason to doubt President Bush’s sincerity in hoping to achieve a breakthrough in the Middle East and create a Palestinian state. But there are no masterstrokes to suddenly transform the leaden political landscape. It is one thing to lay out the red carpet for Abbas, encouraging though that is; but a little more visionary welcome and a little more confidence in the PA could have changed perceptions.
