Bush and Sharon:

For all the handwringing of the American (not to mention world) media, the dynamic is very simple: Bush has made it abundantly clear that he wants the Palestinians to have a responsible government that fights terrorism, and wants the Israelis to move toward a settlement that turns over sovereignty of Gaza and most of the West Bank to a Palestinian state. No progress was being made in either direction for some time. Then, Sharon announced a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Self-interested, sure, but also a political risk that breaks the impasse that had developed, and a potential momentum builder. Bush looked in vain for a reciprocal gesture from the Palestinians. He got nothing. Worse than nothing, the Palestinians have been busily discussing how to bring Hamas into their government. Result: political rewards for Sharon, a cold shoulder for the Palestinians. It was almost two years ago that Bush made it clear that he would judge the Palestinian leadership by one criteria: its willingness to fight terrorism. Why, two years and no willingness to fight terrorism later, it expects “evenhandedness” from Bush shows that they simply don’t understand the man.

UPDATE: Debka, which takes a “right-wing” Israeli line, is alarmed that Bush referred to the 1949 armistice lines, and not the 1967 “Green Line.” Bush’s actual remarks: “Realities on the ground have changed over decades. In the light of those changes, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the 1949 armistice lines.” Traditional American (and Israeli) policy has been that the 1967 borders, with modifications, should be the baseline for the final settlement. By pushing things back to 1949, I wonder if Bush, with Sharon’s complicity, isn’t hinting that demographic realities run both ways, and that major Arab population centers in Israel–Nazareth, Umm Al-Fahm and surrounding villages[edit: note that Arab population centers in the Galilee were under Israeli military rule until 1966]–may be transfered to the new Palestinian state in exchange for Jewish settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.

UPDATE: Then again, Laurence Rothenberg of the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggests via email that the president was simply trying to emphasize that the 1967 lines are not fixed and internationally recognized “borders” but armistice lines, subject to negotiation.