It didn’t take long for the glow of the Annapolis peace conference to wear off. Israelis and Palestinians have quickly fallen back into predictable destructive patterns. Arab countries have not done anywhere near enough to support the negotiations. Even the United States is behind on its pledges: because of bureaucratic wrangling and Israeli doubts, it has yet to establish a promised “mechanism” to monitor the two sides’ behavior and pressure them into meeting their commitments.
The American-led conference late last month achieved the minimum: an agreement by Israelis and Palestinians to begin immediate negotiations with the goal of reaching a peace treaty by the end of 2008. Since then, the two sides have failed even to name working groups that are supposed to grapple with the difficult core issues: borders, refugees, the future of Jerusalem and how to guarantee Israel’s security.
Next week President Bush will make his first trip since taking office to Israel and the Palestinian territories. His aides should use the time before then to press both sides to set up those working groups and lay out a calendar for negotiations. Annapolis was photo-op enough. Mr. Bush should use this visit to get real work started.
In the last month, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have held two meetings, in which all they did was revisit old grievances. Palestinians are right to complain that Israel violated its promise to halt settlements by announcing a tender for about 300 new apartments in Har Homa, and Israel is right to demand that the Palestinians act more aggressively to disband terrorist and militant groups.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, tried to calm tensions when they met last week and promised — again — to refrain from acts prejudicing a final peace treaty. Both are extremely weak leaders who need maximum outside support to make serious compromises.
Before he leaves Washington, Mr. Bush also needs to get his own house in order. His aides have been wrangling for weeks over who will head up the so-called monitoring mechanism and how it will operate. Those issues must be settled before Mr. Bush’s trip.
Some officials want to assign the task to the American consul general in Jerusalem. The job — which will entail a lot of arm-twisting — should go to someone with a lot higher profile and direct access to President Bush. Putting Gen. James Jones, a former NATO commander who recently became special envoy for Mideast security, in charge would make a lot more sense.
Arab states also need to do more to support Mr. Abbas and to reassure Israel that its compromises will bring greater acceptance. Given the price of oil, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can certainly afford to provide more cash to the struggling Palestinian government. Egypt needs to completely disable tunnels used by Hamas militants in Gaza to smuggle in arms.
The danger that some extremist will try to destroy the negotiations with a mindless act of violence is never far. Which is all the more reason for Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas to push the process forward as fast as they can — and give their citizens a sense of the possibilities in peace.
The last month’s stagnation, after the enthusiasm of Annapolis, is yet another reminder of why Mr. Bush cannot stand on the sidelines and hope that an agreement will somehow materialize.
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