Military

DATE=06/25/02

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=CQ BUSH / MIDEAST

NUMBER=6-125726

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

///EDS: CORRECTS CHARACTERIZATION OF ISRAELI POSITION. NO OTHER CHANGES.///

EDITORS: DUE TO THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESIDENT BUSH'S SPEECH, THIS OPINION ROUNDUP DOES N O T DUPLICATE ANY OF THE EDITORIALS FOUND IN TODAY'S U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST 6-125725.

INTRO: Editorial reaction is pouring in from all corners of the United States to President George W. Bush's twice-postponed policy statement on the Middle East. In no uncertain terms, Mr. Bush called for new Palestinian leadership to solve the impasse, implying that Yasser Arafat must be replaced. He also said the Palestinians should form a more democratic government, and an effective police apparatus, and he urged Israel to aid the process by withdrawing troops and halting settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory.

Dozens of editorials are discussing the President's remarks, and we call on V-O-A's ____________ for a sampling in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: President Bush delivered his long-awaited speech on the Middle East in the White House Rose Garden Monday afternoon. Despite a relatively short response time, many Tuesday papers are both reporting on the speech, and commenting on its content. We begin in the heartland, where the Chicago Sun-Times offers this comment:

VOICE: President Bush's Mideast policy rests on two unassailable propositions: Yasser Arafat has not provided the kind of leadership needed to achieve peace and must go; and no peace is possible so long as the Arab world plays the role of agitator and troublemaker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

.We will be hearing some howls of complaints from [Chairman] Arafat's apologists and the "moderate" Arab nations that [President] Bush came down too heavily on Israel's side. Not so. His policy springs from the fundamental truth that has existed since September of two-thousand . Back then, [Mr.] Arafat rejected the best deal the Palestinians could hope for and resorted to terror and murder, believing that bombs and guns would win him more than negotiations. [President] Bush's speech . means that this gamble, which has worked so many times for [Chairman] Arafat, has finally failed. . And there is virtually no hope for new leadership for the Palestinians unless the Arab world abandons its blind devotion to [Mr.] Arafat.

TEXT: The views of Chicago's Sun-Times. In Texas, The Dallas Morning News is encouraged by the President's remarks.

VOICE: Two points stand out from [the] speech. He continues to press for a Mideast settlement, even though suicide bombers try to intimidate the search for stability. And he remains the first U-S president to push for a Palestinian state. Both moves are significant. Palestinian extremists have tried to undermine the peace process through suicide bombings. But the president's speech rightly underscores that the U-S will not back down in its search for stability. To do otherwise is to reward terror.

. The president . reversed the land-for-peace formula that dates back to the Nixon administration. The Bush formula reads more like peace for security. The president essentially told Palestinians that they will not get a provisional state until they throw the rascals out. Indeed, Yasser Arafat has outlived his usefulness.

TEXT: That theme is picked up in the Rhode Island capital by The Providence Journal, which adds:

VOICE: President Bush . rightly urged Palestinians to replace Chairman Yasser Arafat and hold elections by year's end for a legislature with normal authority. Mr. Arafat is too much a part of terrorism against Israeli civilians and has shown too much mismanagement and tolerance of corruption in the Palestinian Authority to have any credibility left as a peace partner.

TEXT: In nearby Boston, however, The Boston Herald remarks on what the president had to say, calling his idea "a harmful fantasy."

VOICE: President Bush has promised the Palestinians and the Israelis . a fantasy. His pledge to support creation of a "provisional" Palestinian state on condition that the Palestinians acquire "new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbors" will simply encourage Israel's enemies in their belief that terrorism works.

He is cavalierly overlooking the fact that Yasser Arafat is not going to leave office and retire to a seaside villa somewhere on the say-so of George W. Bush. . Bush aides were said to see a provisional state within 18 months and full permanent statehood in as few as three years. This is naïve. . A "provisional" state is like being a little big pregnant, not possible. A Palestinian state .should be discussed only after suicide bombing has .stopped.

TEXT: Some thoughts from The Boston [Massachusetts] Herald. The largest daily paper in Michigan, The Detroit Free Press believes that he "rightly conditions statehood on [Mr.] Arafat('s) leaving."

VOICE: In outlining the latest U-S plan to end the violence in the Middle East, President . Bush said aloud what has become increasingly clear in recent months: the Palestinians have no future under Yasser Arafat. There is too much blood on his hands. His leadership has failed. The Palestinians may resent being told this. But the hope is they resent more the Israeli tanks and troops that rumble into their streets and smash their homes in pursuit of the homicidal terrorists that [Chairman] Arafat has been unable or unwilling to control.

. A path to peace and statehood has been made clear. He is in the way, figuratively and symbolically. Now is his time to be a statesman.

TEXT: Excerpts from a Detroit Free Press editorial. In USA Today, the national daily published just outside Washington, the paper describes the president's remarks as "shock therapy," adding:

VOICE: ..by prescribing the most radical treatment to end Mideast violence, the president faces high risks of paralyzing fledgling prospects for peace. The most obvious problem with [Mr.] Bush's plan is that it fails to give Palestinians a realistic prescription. That did not bother a broad coalition at home, including Jews, conservative Christians and lawmakers in both parties. [President] Bush also drew support in Israel by demanding [Mr.] Arafat's removal along with an end to his corrupt practices and violent tactics.

The omission was not lost on the Arab world. Hopes had been high that [Mr.] Bush would offer the Palestinians an immediate interim state. Instead, he deferred the possibility until the Palestinians have new leaders. Without a more pragmatic approach, that might be forever.

TEXT: Some apprehension from the national daily, USA Today. A much more supportive view of the president's remarks comes from The Wall Street Journal. The business daily likes the president's call for new democratically-elected Palestinian leadership.

VOICE: It is important to understand how radical this idea of democracy is for Palestine. For years the U-S and Israel both winked at the brutality of Arab leaders, in the Faustian [Editors: Faust was a character in literature who made a pact with the Devil] hope that they would provide "stability" and "peace." This was the flaw at the heart of the Oslo peace process, in which the U-S sub-contracted with Yasser Arafat to stop attacks against Israel. But this was impossible as long as Mr. Arafat and other Palestinian leaders derived all of their political legitimacy from the struggle against Israel.

Yesterday, Mr. Bush said this day is over. "Today the elected Palestinian legislature has no authority, and power is concentrated in the hands of an unaccountable few," he said, adding that, "Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing, terrorism. This is unacceptable." . In short, if Palestinians want the world to recognize them as a state, then they need to behave like a civilized one.

TEXT: With those thoughts from The Wall Street Journal, we conclude this sampling of comment on President Bush's policy speech on the Middle East.

NEB/ANG/SAB