THE CYNICAL PEACE CONFERENCE

Processing Peace (Contentions)

There is a cynical, realpolitik justification for the Annapolis "peace conference." Some will claim that, even if the odds of success are negligible, it is important to go through the motions to provide cover to moderate Arab states so that they can assuage the supposed anger among their populace about the lack of attention given to the Palestinian-Israeli "issue." It is this anger, some will claim, that is a leading force behind terrorist recruitment. If the U.S. shows that it is applying serious pressure on Israel for "peace," then, so the argument goes, Arab states will reciprocate by helping the U.S. achieve its foreign policy goals in Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere.

That position has never made much sense to me. Are Islamic radicals attacking Pakistani government troops in the Northwest Frontier Province because they're upset about the "nakba" (catastrophe), as Arabs label the creation of Israel?

To the extent that Israel plays into Muslim anger, it isn't because of the lack of a Palestinian-Israeli accord; it's because of the existence of the state of Israel, period. Even more than 60 years later, a lot of Muslims still have not reconciled themselves to the "Zionist occupation" of any portion of "Palestine." Some kind of compromise solution, even if it could be reached by the Palestinian Authority's ineffectual leader, Mahmoud Abbas, would hardly satisfy the radicals, who in turn would be sure to stir up the masses. It would just lead them to label Abbas, as so many already do, another "Zionist-crusader" stooge.

But of course the odds of even Abbas and Olmert—widely seen as moderates in their respective polities—reaching an accord anytime soon are slim to none. And there is a price to be paid for failure, as Bret Stephens makes clear today in his Wall Street Journal column. He notes that Abbas "fears Palestinians would 'turn to Hamas after they see that Annapolis did not give them anything,' according to an unnamed Palestinian official quoted in the Jerusalem Post." Moreover, Stephens writes, "Yossi Beilin, architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords and a political dove, predicts not only that Annapolis will fail, but that its failure will 'weaken the Palestinian camp, strengthen Hamas, and cause violence.'"

When even the longtime advocates of negotiation fret that the upcoming negotiations will be counterproductive, perhaps the Bush administration should rethink its newfound enthusiasm for peace processing.