OLMERT'S PLAN: TWO VIEWS

West Bank Terrorist State - R. James Woolsey (Wall Street Journal, 23May06)

• The approach Israel is preparing to take in the West Bank was tried in Gaza and has failed utterly. The Israeli withdrawal of last year has produced the worst set of results imaginable: a heavy presence by al-Qaeda and Hizballah; street-fighting between Hamas and Fatah and now Hamas assassination attempts against Fatah's intelligence chief; rocket and mortar attacks against nearby towns inside Israel; and a perceived vindication for Hamas, which took credit for the withdrawal. This almost certainly contributed substantially to Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections.
• Before his massive stroke last year Ariel Sharon repeatedly said he would not replay the Gaza retreat in the West Bank. With good reason: Creating a West Bank that looks like today's Gaza would be many times the nightmare. How would one deal with continuing launches of rockets and mortars from the West Bank into virtually all of Israel? A security barrier does no good against such bombardment.
• How does moderate Jordan, with its Palestinian majority, survive if bordered by a West Bank terrorist state? Israeli concessions will also make the U.S. look weak because it will be inferred that we have urged them.
• Three major Israeli efforts at accommodation in the last 13 years have not worked. These three accommodations have been based on the premise that only Israeli concessions can displace Palestinian despair. But it seems increasingly clear that the Palestinian cause is fueled by hatred and contempt.
• Israeli concessions indeed enhance Palestinian hope, but not of a reasonable two-state solution - rather a hope that they will actually be able to destroy Israel. When they speak of "ending Israeli occupation," they mean of Tel Aviv. Under these circumstances it is time to recognize that the Israeli-Palestinian issue will likely not be the first matter settled in the decades-long war that radical Islam has declared on the U.S., Israel, the West, and moderate Muslims.
• Someday a two-state solution may become possible, but it is naive in the extreme to believe that this can occur while the centerpiece of the radical Islamic and Palestinian agendas is maximizing Jewish deaths.

Lending a Helping Hand - Dennis Ross and David Makovsky (U.S. News)

• Disengagement from the West Bank would be vastly more difficult than leaving Gaza: Not only will nearly eight times the number of settlers be involved, but the withdrawal would touch the biblical heartland of the Jewish people. Olmert must get something for this and will look for what Washington can provide for Israel in terms of recognition of a new border, financial help for the high costs of relocating settlers and settlements, and international acceptance of what Israel will do.
• With the right kind of statecraft, the president and secretary of state may be able to turn the Olmert concept into a historic move that makes an eventual two-state solution possible. First, before accepting that nothing is possible with the Palestinians, President Bush should tell Olmert that he is prepared to test whether negotiations could still work with the Palestinians.
• To that end, he would approach Mahmoud Abbas with two tasks that would create the environment necessary for negotiations and demonstrate that Palestinians are capable of delivering: Abbas would assume the responsibility for ending the daily rocket fire out of Gaza, and Hamas would prevent Islamic Jihad and others from carrying out attacks against Israelis. If both meet these tasks, we will push for direct negotiations. If neither performs, we will announce that "consolidation" is the only game in town.

SEE ALSO: Olmert's folly By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

The Bush administration should tell visiting Israeli prime minister:"Friends don't let friends commit suicide!"