Bush The Peace Broker

So, I see the oh-so-insightful "Dubya" has decided to set foot in the Middle East to promote his ideas as to how to achieve peace in the region.

Off the top, he's made two mistakes that are apt to be fatal to any hopes of making real progress before the end of 2008.

First is starting his Middle East visit in Israel. While I'm sure the Israeli government loves it, with the United States still prosecuting war in Iraq, Afghanistan and threatening same to Iran, one might imagine that the Arab states that are so crucial to any peace agreement in the region might look upon this as a signal of Bush's intentions.

The second comes out of a speech he gave in Israel:

“Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded,” Bush said in remarks at Ben Gurion International Airport. “And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an almighty God ... and we built an enduring alliance to confront terrorists and tyrants.”

Religion and faith are very important in that part of the world - but they are also extremely polarizing topics. It is unwise indeed to walk into the region as an obvious outsider and then start making grandiose pronouncements about supposedly shared aspects of faith with any one party.

There is no party in the Arab-Israeli dispute that is either blameless or noble in their conduct.

The Palestinians have responded to Israel with riots, suicide bombers and random rocket attacks from within their "territories". Hardly a happy moment for the Israelis.

On the other hand, trying to "wall in" the Palestinians and use highly restrictive border zones with them is divisive and many liken the situation on the West Bank to a seige of days past - not exactly a situation which is going to make the Palestinians and their Arab allies happy either.

Waltzing into the region and starting off by not only flaunting the close relationship with the White House that Israel enjoys, but also a faith tradition that is seen by many in the Arab world as being at odds with their values puts Bush into a position of having little or no real credibility with the key power brokers outside of Israel.

Having Israel "on side" is unquestionably important, but failing to have the various power brokers on the other side of the discussion feeling that you respect them as well puts Bush into a position of having no practical ability to effect change or even the most basic of consensus.