Obama returns to failed policies of past in Middle East

Jackson Diehl:

"Israelis and Palestinians are staring into an abyss, facing the prospect of a future marked by years of bloody conflict, political instability and economic stagnation."

"Along with taking immediate action to end the violence, the parties need to rebuild mutual confidence."

So declared former senator George J. Mitchell -- not yesterday, when President Obama named him a special envoy to the Middle East, but in May 2001 as he concluded a similar mission for presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The 75-year-old Arab American's return to duty was a reminder that much of what the new administration is facing in the region isn't new -- and neither is the initial strategy Obama has adopted.

... The situation was eerily similar, in some ways, to that of today: Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed dominated the news, and U.S.-backed talks on a two-state settlement had broken down. Then, as now, an Israeli election loomed in which a right-wing candidate led in the polls.

Mitchell's recommendations, delivered during the Bush administration's fourth month in office, will sound familiar, too. He called for a cease-fire, followed by a series of confidence-building measures. The aim was to restore a climate in which peace talks could succeed. Palestinian authorities were supposed to reform their security forces and stop terrorist attacks against Israel; Israel was asked to freeze all Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza. "Expansion of settlements undermines Palestinians' confidence in Israel's willingness to negotiate . . . a viable Palestinian state," Mitchell and former senator Warren Rudman declared in an op-ed published in The Post.

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The problem, of course, is that the Mitchell plan of 2001 was a flop. Formally endorsed by all sides, endlessly discussed for more than a year, it was eventually folded into Bush's "road map" scheme of 2002 -- which, in turn, also went nowhere. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat repeatedly promised but never delivered action by the security forces to end Palestinian attacks. The new Israeli prime minister -- Ariel Sharon -- rejected the freeze on settlements. Bush and his secretary of state, Colin Powell, made no effort to overcome Sharon's resistance, and they cut off all contact with Arafat after he was caught trying to import a shipload of weapons.

This time, the landscape Mitchell faces is worse in several respects. Arafat has been replaced in the West Bank by Mahmoud Abbas, a well-meaning but weak leader -- and in Gaza by Hamas, which has just survived a three-week Israeli military offensive without losing its authority over the territory, its ability to fire rockets or its blockade-evading tunnels, or retreating from its refusal to recognize Israel. If the polls hold, Israel's next prime minister will be Binyamin Netanyahu, who devoted a past term in office to slowly poisoning both Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and relations with Washington.

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While Democrats tend to blame the failure on Bush, that misplaces where the blame should be. It was not just the weapons ship that killed the original deal. Every time Bush sent Gen. Zinni to work on the deal he was met with exploding Palestinians bent on mass murder of Israeli non combatants. In fact the best way to stop the mass murder was to keep Zinni at home.