Was Clinton's First Middle East Foray Good for Israel?

In her first Middle East visit as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton called the establishment of a Palestinian state "inescapable," and labeled as "unhelpful" Israel's planned demolition of illegal Arab Palestinian construction, closing of border crossings to a terrorist entity and expanding construction in land acquired through a defensive war. In what was termed a "new path," the Clinton team sent diplomats to renew a courtship with the tyrannical Bashar Assad's Syria, and suggested that there should be a "unity" Palestinian government, which means a merger of the terrorist Hamas regime with the more moderate terrorists of Fatah.

But words like inescapable and unhelpful, when applied to dangerous ideas and realistic responses to terrorism, are themselves unhelpful.

Is now really the time to underscore to the Palestinians that their leadership has achieved what at least some see as their ultimate goal -- statehood -- without the renunciation of terror? Is the stewardship of Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas -- or, even more grotesquely, Ismail Haniya and the leadership of Hamas -- deserving of approbation rather than opprobrium?

What should be inescapably obvious is that the Abbas-Haniya hydra will continue on the path of terrorism. Yet the single attainable goal that Clinton voiced was that there will be a Palestinian state. So much for carrots and sticks; Clinton already gave away the farm.

In the extreme sport of throwing money at the Palestinians, the current U.S. administration is going for the gold. At the Sharm el-Sheik global aid-apalooza on March 2, Clinton pledged $900 million to rebuild the Hamas infrastructure in Gaza and boost the Fatah economy.

The official party line about the $900 million was that the "money was not being channeled through Hamas," according to State Department spokesman Robert Wood. But a senior State Department official acknowledged that "everyone" knows that "having a unified authority for the Palestinians" would be "a positive step toward statehood."

Israel's planned expansion of residential housing in disputed sections of Israel was called "unhelpful" to the peace process, while Israel's plans to demolish Arab buildings illegally constructed in disputed sections of Jerusalem earned a tongue-lashing from Clinton.

Clinton also denounced Israel's restricted passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel was faulted for closures of its borders to the terrorist regime next door. The Hamas regime has a more liberal border policy -- that of allowing any Palestinian to export mortars and increasingly sophisticated rockets over its border and into Israel. The U.S. administration chastised Hamas for failing to curb the enthusiastic export from Gaza, but it is Israel's border policy that is being hammered in the diplomatic arena.

The plan to revive a "Syria track" of diplomacy is au currant. Clinton sent deputies to begin the process of re-establishing relations with Syria. Following their meetings, the two U.S. envoys said that "Syria can play an important and constructive role in the region."

Yes, they are talking about the same Syria in which tests by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency found, despite years of Syrian protest to the contrary, traces of enriched uranium to be evidence of covert nuclear activity.

Yes, the same Syria that America designated a foreign terrorist organization for hosting and supporting the regimes of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Yes, the same Syria that attended Iran's alternative to the Gaza aid-apalooza that opened with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's statement that "resistance" against Israel, a "cancerous tumor," is the only way to save Palestinians.

Most of Clinton's efforts merely repeat the fruitless steps taken by the Bush administration, except for the outreach to Syria, with which President Bush refused to engage. This courtship is intended to woo Syria away from its current puppeteer, the ultimate evil empire, Iran.

But even this effort is a retread of another Republican: Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. For decades, his snarled response to queries about his playing footsy (and squash) with terrorist-abetting Syria was this mantra: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Yet some of those enemies you are holding close may just be drawing a bull's-eye on your back.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes on the Middle East for local, national and international publications.

Clinton called the establishment of a Palestinian state "inescapable,"

Its not inescapable. I'm of the opinion that it will never happen. There will never be an independent arab west bank.

Separate from Jordan, separate from Israel, it is doomed to be what it is, an outlaw enclave ruled by outlaws, and populated by people have have consented to be ruled by outlaws, people who have become complicit in their own misery.

Separate from Jordan, separate from Israel, where are its markets? Its sources of employment? There aren't any. The geniuses who keep promoting an independent west bank admit as much when they insist that Israel must open her borders to arab workers from the west bank.

I take the opposite view. Its a mistake to waste time pursuing something that will never be. Israel should choose the border she is prepared to live and die by, and seal it. She should not deal with the west bank government at all, but rather deal only with Amman. Let Amman be the west bank's window to the world. The arabs have tried to design a territory that will be a cancer on Israel's hide, but Israel should reverse the game. Sealing her borders, talking only to Amman, the west bank becomes Jordan's problem instead. The same holds true with Gaza. If anyone else lived there, Gaza would be wonderfully prosperous, with beachside resorts, a banking center for the eastern med, but Gazans aren't Frenchmen, and Gaza is doomed to be what it is. Separate from Egypt and separate from Israel it has no future. Again, Israel should seal its border with the territory, and let Gaza be Egypt's problem. They don't want the problem? Don't ask. Let the arabs sort it out among themselves.

Answer every attack that makes it over the fence by moving the fence, by seizing and annexing land in reprisal. "Land for Peace" has never worked because they've always had the inputs and outputs reversed. Swap the cables around and it will work perfectly.

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Yes, if Israel had any doubt, they now know they're dealing with amatuers, who will support Israel, but attempt to create a palestinian state ASAP, with little regard to the long term consequenses. Not much different than the last three administrations. There's a Nobel Prize at stake, after all.

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