Posted on: Wednesday, June 26, 2002

EDITORIAL
Bush Mideast speech still leaves big gaps

President Bush's much-anticipated speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this week brought long-overdue clarity of purpose to what had been muddled and even contradictory administration policy.

Almost everyone will endorse Bush's hopeful vision of a free, prosperous and democratic Palestinian state living peacefully side-by-side with its neighbor Israel.

But the details of getting from here to there remain cloudy, and the conditions Bush set may be impossible to meet.

For instance, he called for free, democratic elections by the Palestinians, and he not so subtly demanded the ouster of their leader, Yasser Arafat.

For starters, would it even be possible for the Palestinians to hold free, open, multi-party elections while their territory is occupied and under siege?

And if there were elections, there is every reason to expect the Palestinians might elect Arafat. Would Bush accept such a result?

There is every reason to wish for a leader more committed to a peaceful settlement than Arafat. He clearly is responsible, either by deeds of commission or omission, for much of the current turmoil.

And obviously, the United States is not in a position to help what is, in effect, a terrorist state. But is it really the U.S. role to tell another country whom its leader should be?

What we got this week are the outlines of a hopeful future for this troubled part of the world. But that vision will not be accomplished simply by wishing it so.

The next step is sustained, careful and determined work by the Bush administration to get through the obvious minefields that stand between vision and reality.