Oooh, look: the U.S. is going on a peace mission to bring peace to the Middle East! President Bush calls for a regional conference to restart peace talks, and gives a speech promising to "provide diplomatic support for the parties in their bilateral discussions and negotiations so that we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state". He meets with Olmert to discuss "how they can see arriving at a two-state solution".
Everyone is very excited. The Jordanian government welcomes Bush's call as a "positive step in the right direction", with King Abdullah adding:
"This call will pave the way for achieving a real and tangible progress in the peace process leading to an independent Palestinian state to be established on Palestinian soil."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is also "encouraged by the president's renewed commitment to a two-state solution, entailing the creation of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state living side-by-side with a secure Israel". The EU pledges to "work side by side" with the U.S. in this noble endeavour, and Germany is also very impressed. The "caretaker" Palestinian West Bank-only government greets the news with "watchful optimism", whilst Israel welcomes the "excellent umbrella" Bush's proposal provides to support the "moderate Palestinians". France also adds its conditional support.
Less good: the Hamas government in Gaza rejects Bush's peace plan as 'nothing but lies' - an unsurprising development, given that the virtually explicit purpose of the "peace conference" is to strengthen Abbas at Hamas' expense. Syria also dismisses the initiative as "just words".
Special Peace Envoy Tony Blair mutters something in the corner.
As hopes for the new peace push begin to waver, Israel reminds everyone that "we have been very clear that we are not willing to discuss at this stage the three core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem". In other words, that Israel views the conference as an opportunity to "add to the momentum" of its attempts to get rid of Hamas, but not as a chance to make any actual progress towards peace. Miri Eisin, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman, explains, "[t]he Palestinians want to go a lot faster", whereas Israel prefers to go "a lot slower". Tony Blair starts murmuring appreciatively, and Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki rather understatedly declares, "[w]e are not sure about Israel's seriousness". White House press secretary Tony Snow then warns,
"I think a lot of people are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference. It's not",
thus confirming what we knew all along: that the whole "process" was a load of ol' bollocks from the start.
See also Charles Levinson and Tony Karon.
Cross-posted at The Heathlander