Posted on 06/27/2002 8:29:09 AM PDT by Clive
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell keeps trying to preserve some wiggle room for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. President George W. Bush keeps slapping him down.
The reason: Mr. Powell believes U.S. foreign policy must be practical, which means living with the fact of Yasser Arafat; Mr. Bush insists that it be moral, which means Mr. Arafat has to go.
In Kananaskis yesterday, Mr. Bush ruled out any possibility of Washington treating with Mr. Arafat, no matter how legitimate his mandate from the Palestinian people. "I meant what I said, that there needs to be change," he insisted, when a reporter asked what would happen if Mr. Arafat fairly won next year's national elections. "If people are interested in peace, something else has got to happen."
Lest anyone think there was a wiggle anywhere in there, he carried on: "I also made it plenty clear that if there is leadership compromised by terror, we won't be on the path to peace. I've got confidence in the Palestinians, when they understand fully what we're saying, that they'll make right decisions."
And who will judge what is a right decision? "The free world. The people who are going to be asked to put up money."
And just in case that wasn't clear enough, White House officials called in reporters to tell them the Israelis had convincing evidence that Mr. Arafat had personally authorized a $20,000 payment to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which in its latest suicide bombing last week managed to kill at least six Israelis and wound 35.
Contrast that to the day before, when Mr. Powell was asked what would happen if the Palestinians chose Mr. Arafat again. The Secretary of State wiggled. "We'll just have to see how that plays out," he said in a radio interview. "I mean, we will deal with the circumstances as we find them."
The two positions could not be more divergent. But the President is the boss.
Mr. Bush is alone in his stand. (Well, he has Vice- President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his side.) G8 leaders at Kananaskis and other leaders around the world rushed to declare this week that, while it would be nice if Mr. Arafat went away, if he wins the votes then the world will have to deal with him. The French love Mr. Arafat so much their Foreign Minister stood beside him Tuesday when he vowed to carry on.
In one respect, it's unfair to expect the Palestinians to replace Mr. Arafat, when there is no system in place to provide alternatives. Elections are the end product of democracy, not the launching point. They make little sense without a mature political culture, including established parties, entrenched freedom of speech and assembly, and rule of law. The Palestinians enjoy none of these things. For most of their lives, most of them have been ruled by foreigners or thugs.
Still, the choice they're being given couldn't be clearer: The United States, in concert with the West, is offering its assistance in helping to create a Palestinian state. And not just any state, one with an open economy, a sound judiciary, a full range of democratic freedoms, and international guarantees of its security. Who could ask for anything more?
But there's a but. The Palestinian people must renounce terrorism as a policy. Specifically, they must reject Mr. Arafat or any other leader who consorts with or finances terrorists.
Electorates are both free and responsible, and are accountable for the consequences of their decisions. A free and fair election brought Hitler the German chancellorship in 1932, and no society ever paid a higher price. More recently, Austrian voters learned the price of the ostracism they must pay if they insist on voting for politicians who carry even the faintest whiff of a fascistic past. The Palestinians, too, are responsible for the consequences of their ballots.
Mr. Bush infuriates other world leaders -- and probably his Secretary of State -- because he refuses to accept that the Middle East is a complicated place, where right and wrong are not easily defined, and progress not easily achieved.
Mr. Bush just doesn't want to go there. Liberal democracy is a good thing, he believes, and everyone deserves it. Funding programs that encourage kids to strap bombs to themselves and blow up innocent people is evil.
Yes, it's more complicated than that. Yes, this President too often violates his own high standards. (One word: China.) Yes, Colin Powell and the striped-pants boys and girls at the State Department probably have a more realistic and nuanced understanding of the situation.
But even Machiavelli sought virtue in a Prince.
That is what constitutional government is all about.
And where compromise with barbarism has been a miserable diplomatic failure.
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