FAIR, BUT WRONG :

Mr. Bush Talks the Talk (NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, June 28, 2002, NY Times)

It obliges our moralistic streak to try to replace Mr. Arafat, and it would be great if the Palestinians did get a better leader. But Mr. Bush's harrumphing does nothing to achieve better leadership in Palestine; if anything, it strengthens Mr. Arafat and boosts Hamas as well. One poll of Palestinians has already found that a solid plurality expects Mr. Arafat to be elected in a democratic vote. Another poll found that nearly three times as many Palestinians trust Mr. Arafat as they do the next highest contender.

So by calling off our plans for a Middle East conference and simply insisting that Mr. Arafat leave the scene before we come out to deal, Mr. Bush is signaling that we are disengaging from the Middle East, returning to his earlier failed policy of looking the other way. That was a catastrophic mistake that helped create today's mess.

Mr. Kristof continues to emerge as the one serious columnist at the NY Times, with this very fair assessment of George W. Bush's black and white morality--fair, but also probably wrong. what he seems unwilling to confront is the fact that all Middle East policies involving the Palestinians have been failures. Negotiations failed. Confrontation failed. Ignoring them failed. Being nice to Arafat failed. Reviling him failed. The search for peace in Palestine is simply a failure, no matter how we pursue. So, given this fact, why not pursue the course that provides us with moral clarity. It may at times be worth cutting moral corners if you can end up wiuth a sufficiently desirable result--that's simple realism. But what's the point of trimming your moral sails and failing too? You get the worst of both worlds. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2002 11:50 PM