Military

DATE=5/29/03

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=MORE "ROAD MAP" REACTION

NUMBER=6-12948

BYLINE=Andrew Guthrie

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

/// EDS: DUE TO THE EXTREMELY LARGE NUMBER OF EDITORIALS ON THIS TOPIC, AND ITS GEOPOLITICAL IMPORTANCE, A SECOND OPINION ROUNDUP IS DEVOTED TO IT. THERE IS NO DUPLICATION WITH ANY PREVIOUS OPINION SHOW.///

INTRO: U-S newspapers continue to focus on what appears to be the first significant movement in months, maybe years, toward peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. Almost every paper includes caution in its analysis, due to previous failures, but several conclude that the fall of Saddam Hussein's Iraq has changed the playing field dramatically. Here is an additional sampling from V-O-A's __________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: In many editorials, there is a mixture of hope, disbelief and caution as the so-called "road map" to peace proposed by President Bush and several allies, moves ahead. This Boston Globe comment is typical.

VOICE: It is hard to know which is the more startling: Ariel Sharon's apparent readiness to renounce Israel's occupation in the "disputed territories" or President Bush's immersion in Mideast peacemaking and the daunting work of nation-building in Iraq. Although each of these transformations may turn out to be ephemeral, both open up curative possibilities [and] should be encouraged as if they were sincere.

With Saddam gone, Israel's strategic situation is greatly enhanced -- at least for several years. At the same time, [Mr.] Sharon is in no position to defy the American president who changed the regime in Baghdad. Certainly not when the "road map" [Mr.] Bush wants Israel and the Palestinians to follow could eventually extricate Israelis from a situation that is becoming more and more untenable.

TEXT: The New York Times appears to view what is going in as historic.

VOICE: On Sunday, the Israeli government, for the first time, gave its support to a Palestinian state when it accepted the so-called "road map" for peace. On Monday, an equally significant moment occurred when Ariel Sharon, the prime minister and the father of Jewish expansion in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, told his party faithful that Israeli rule over Palestinians must be brought to an end. . Perhaps this 75-year-old warrior has taken a realistic look at his nation's future and understood that Israel must not rule over another people.

TEXT: A less euphoric Washington Post views things this way.

VOICE: It's easy to doubt the seriousness of both Israelis and Palestinians. Though the government of Ariel Sharon formally endorsed the "road map" over the weekend, it so conditioned its approval as to virtually nullify it. Yasser Arafat still does his best to obstruct any concessions by his new Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas. Both sides so far have refused to take any concrete steps on the ground; both hold out for U-S intervention on their side. Still, there are hopeful signs.

TEXT: Praise for President Bush but skepticism about the future of this plan, on the ground, now from Minnesota's Minneapolis Star Tribune.

VOICE: For a man who claims to be bored by diplomacy, President Bush has scored a series of diplomatic coups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lately, culminating in a vote by Ariel Sharon's cabinet to accept the contents of a multinational peace plan. [Mr.] Bush deserves credit for these achievements, but he needs to follow up with fresh steps to protect them against the inevitable backlash.

Perhaps the most corrosive force is the cynicism, widely felt on both sides, that either party will pursue the "road map" in good faith. Israelis doubt that Palestinian leaders will or can disarm the bombers; Palestinians doubt that [Mr.] Sharon will or can dismantle Israeli settlements in occupied land.

TEXT: The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Journal-Sentinel sums up its misgivings this way.

VOICE: To say that even this first step is easy to accomplish is to be in denial about the decades that precede it. Hope and despair are the alternating currents of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the one following the other so routinely that optimism is a luxury even in the best of times. Example: On Tuesday, a meeting between [Mr.] Sharon and [Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud] Abbas was canceled -- apparently because Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom both the U-S and Israel want to marginalize, sought to assert some of his authority.

TEXT: Indiana's Indianapolis Star is equally, wary but concedes: "Despite [the] setbacks, the "road map" to peace is the most viable plan in years." And not far away, in Michigan, The Detroit News says the onus is now on the Palestinians.

VOICE: Much depends on how the Palestinians respond to [Mr.] Sharon's overtures. [Prime Minister] Abbas signed on to the president's "road map" immediately. But so far, the Palestinians have taken only half-steps. The peace process can't start in earnest until both sides acknowledge the need to make painful concessions.

TEXT: With that from The Detroit News, we conclude this second round of editorials on new developments regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

NEB/ANG/RH