INTO THE LION'S DEN

Bush Weighs Mideast Trip as Peace Plan Ebbs (STEVEN R. WEISMAN, 5/21/03, NY Times)

President Bush, intervening to salvage his administration's battered Middle East peace plan, today called the new Palestinian prime minister for the first time, and administration officials said he was considering traveling to the region in the next few weeks for the first time as president.

Administration officials said that in his conversation with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Bush urged him to take "concrete steps" to disarm Hamas and other groups that have carried out attacks against Israelis. He later telephoned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, they said, asking him to ease the harsh conditions for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

The president's unusually direct involvement in the Middle East situation reflected what administration officials said was a growing fear that without more assertive involvement from Washington, the chances to settle the Israeli-Palestinian disputes could disappear into a vortex of more violence. [...]

In a separate development, administration officials said that to rekindle the prospects for peace, Mr. Sharon was being pressed to consider doing something dramatic that would not directly affect Israeli security, like dismantling a small number of Jewish settlements established in the last two years.

A couple of weeks ago, these officials said, two top White House aides--Stephen J. Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, director of Middle East affairs on the national security staff--took a helicopter trip across Israel with Mr. Sharon.

Administration officials said at the time that the trip was an attempt by Mr. Sharon to show them the precariousness of Israel's security situation, as he had done with other visitors, including Mr. Bush before he was president.

In fact, the officials said, the helicopter trip was partly intended for them to get a bird's eye view of Jewish settlements to see which ones would eventually be frozen or even dismantled as part of the peace negotiations. The peace plan calls implicitly for settlements to be dismantled as part of a final settlement, its drafters say.

A trip by Mr. Bush to the Middle East was uncertain, administration officials said, and his aides were said to disagree over whether he should become more personally involved at all in the Israeli-Palestinian morass.

They should go even further--Mr. Bush should meet with Mr. Abbas on Palestinian territory. It would not only send an important message to the Palestinian people, but the courage required would wash away the bad taste of his scurrying to Nebraska on 9-11. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 21, 2003 10:48 AM