Bush Commits to Middle East Peace

In a break away from the presidential race, President Bush is in the Middle East this week. Odd as it may seem to believe, there is currently one person NOT running for President - the President himself! Bush announced today that he's confident a peace agreement can be reached between Israel and Palestine on his watch. That would be quite an item for the Bush Legacy. He also went one further today and met with President Abbas in Ramallah, and called Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories...an 'occupation'. It's the first time that President Bush has come out and said this, which indicates a shift in how he's approaching Middle Eastern peace.

I think it's about time. I'm happy he's come to the party of trying to create peace in the Middle East, but he should have put much more time into this much earlier. I know the Roadmap was a Bush thing, but after being published the Administration let it die. Bush refused to deal with Arafat and that put things back on the timetable quite a lot, but if he's truly committed to peace across the whole Middle East the Israel/Palestine question should have been occupying his time much, much earlier than one year before the end of his Administration. Being in his final year doesn't matter so much in foreign affairs as it does in his dealings with Congress, but it will have an effect. He won't be able to exert as much influence over the different parties because he can't be sure his successor will carry on that exertion of influence, and the Israelis and Palestinians know that too.

If he can do it, I will cheer. It'll certainly improve his legacy a whole lot, as he'll be remembered both as the person who created the situation in Iraq AND created peace in the Middle East. That would leave Bush with a mixed legacy, as opposed to a negative one. It's far too late for him to a positive legacy. He'll receive a re-assessment in time, but nowhere near to the degree of some Presidents and his name won't be spoken in the same breath as Truman, Kennedy and Reagan.