Arafat can turn to Menachem Mazuz

Nice rant.

What the eyes saw and the ears heard last
Wednesday morning was hard to believe. U.S.
President George W. Bush didn't have a word
to say about relations between Israel and the
Palestinians. Nary a word about the road map,
or the "Bush initiative," or Palestinian terror or
the separation fence. Less than a year ago,
whenever the term "diplomatic process" was
used, it referred to the same one thing. "Middle
East peace" meant just one sort of peace. But
nowadays Mars is more interesting to officials
in Washington than street battles between
Israelis and Palestinians; and, more often than
not, the diplomatic process refers to post-war
reconstruction in Iraq.

A new concept has taken root in the Bush
administration's lexicon: "The Greater Middle
East." This huge bloc appears to include
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran - in short, the
redefined region encompasses all Arabs and
Muslims, all "enemies of reform" (as Bush has
put it), "and anyone who threatens U.S.
security." Under this definition, there's little
room left for the long-lived, little dispute
between Israel and the Palestinians, or for
Israel and the Arab world at large. That dispute
is no more important than a conflict in (for
instance) the two parts of Sudan. There wasn't
enough room for everyone in Bush's state of
the union speech.

---

Since Bush has to deal with elections, Iraq, the
Greater Middle East, world democracy,
freedom of expression and reforms as befits
an intellectual president who prefers one big
ideological dispute to a number of local
conflicts - this is a period when the prime
tenant of the Muqata in Ramallah can relax,
and kick his feet up after a tough three years in
his besieged compound. Apart from the fact
that he could be about to see yet another Israeli
prime minister leave the stage while he
continues to hold the reins in the PA, Arafat is
the only player at this point who can propose
radical solutions without jeopardizing himself.
Let's suppose that he'll decide to propose the
annulment of the right of refugee return, or a
concession about the holy places of Jerusalem,
or the liquidation of Hamas. He can put any
such idea of the new attorney general
Menachem Mazuz, or of the interim chairman
of Iraq's ruling council - these are the folks
who will for some time ahead claim the
attention of decision makers in Jerusalem and
Washington.

Haaretz