ON THE OTHER HAND :

Lifelines to the Future (Thomas L. Friedman, April 7, 2002, NY Times)

President Bush's speech last week was particularly important because he put America in exactly the role it should be playing: restoring clear lines. He drew a clear line for Israelis — that no matter how many settlements they've built, any peace deal has to be based on the 1967 lines. He drew a clear line for Palestinians — that suicide bombers are not "martyrs, they're murderers."

But Mr. Bush did not draw the line down the middle. He was more critical of Mr. Arafat than Mr. Sharon because he knows something the Arabs have consistently tried to ignore: Ariel Sharon did not come from outer space. He was elected only after Mr. Arafat walked away from the best opportunity ever for creating a Palestinian state: the Clinton plan. Mr. Arafat deliberately chose to use military pressure, instead of diplomacy or nonviolence, to extract more out of Israel, and Israelis turned to Mr. Sharon as their revenge. This context is critical, and Mr. Bush has refused to ignore it.

Though we've frequently been critical of Tom Friedman (see below), the specter of Israel's annihilation seems to have concentrated his attention wonderfully, leading to some of the most explicitly pro-Israel, pro-Western columns that we can ever recall him writing. The above is one of the better takes on Bush's ultimatum that you're likely to find. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 7, 2002 3:21 PM