US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has achieved a major breakthrough for her country's foreign policy by insisting that Palestinian-Israeli peace talks continue despite a dramatic increase in violence in the Gaza Strip. Undeterred by an Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 120 people - including dozens of civilians, among them at least 23 children - Rice has forced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to the table after he demanded that a truce be put in place first. This marks a radical departure from the tradition by which successive US administrations have allowed the beneficiaries of their largesse to walk away from diplomacy at precisely those moments when bloodshed and increased tensions have made engagement more necessary than ever.
The primary drawback of the former policy was that it gave those who oppose the peace process - on both sides - a lever by which to scuttle it at the moment of their choosing. Now that Rice has seemingly reversed this approach, those who have used this "brake mechanism" so frequently in the past might desist if they conclude that it has been decoupled from the diplomatic machinery.
Unfortunately, the matter is more complicated than all that, principally because it will take a lot more than Rice's imposing her will on the hapless Abbas to prove that she can and will do something similar when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (or any of his compatriots) decides to throw a tantrum. Rice and her predecessors have bowed to the Jewish state's whims on so many occasions, on so many issues, for so little reason, and for such a long time, that the credibility attaching to promises of evenhandedness from Washington now approximates that enjoyed by tributes to human rights from Pyongyang.
Still, there is hope. The Palestinian people are truly desperate, both in Gaza, where Hamas remains firmly in charge despite US/Israeli pressure and its own bullheadedness, and in the Occupied West Bank, where Abbas continues to rule at the pleasure of Olmert. The Israeli people are less hard-pressed than their Palestinian cousins, but according to polls most of them have come to their senses far earlier than any of their leaders by, for example, reaching the conclusion that negotiations with Hamas would not be beyond the pale. Solid majorities on both sides want the peace process to work, Rice has told Abbas that he cannot unilaterally suspend the talks, and her boss has stated that he is determined to secure a comprehensive deal before he leaves office in January 2009. There is the matter of possible hesitancy from Olmert, but even after months of improvement, he has not recovered much popular support - so he should be amenable to anything that permits him to delay an election.
The true test will come if and when it is Israeli objections to proceeding that must be overcome. Only then will we know if Rice's newfound devotion to diplomacy is a genuine policy revolution or just a ruse to buy more time for Israel's depredations in Gaza.
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