Church of naivety

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was in Bethlehem to meet with religious leaders yesterday. The Washington Post has two reports on the trip, the first is Rice Draws on ‘Spiritual Passion’ in Push for Peace

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice broke away from her diplomatic meetings here to sit down with the top religious leaders — Christian, Jewish and Muslim — of this holy city Monday night. According to people present, she heard about the failure of Israeli authorities to recognize the Greek Orthodox patriarch, a top Muslim cleric’s lack of access to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque and other complaints. Rice responded by recalling her upbringing in segregated Birmingham, Ala. “She spoke with a spiritual passion about the need for peace and overcoming pain and grievance,” Rabbi David Rosen said. “She said to us, ‘You all have your legitimate grievances, but there’s a moment in history for an inexorable change.’ And she believes this is the time for the Israeli and Palestinian conflict to end.”

I’m not certain what Jewish leaders there are in Bethlehem. And no doubt there are fewer Christian leaders than there were 14 years ago. But those aren’t issues that are mentioned. It’s interesting that she apparently didn’t hear any grievances say about the desecration of the Temple Mount under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. Rabbi David Rosen isn’t from Bethlehem, he’s from Jerusalem and he’s with the American Jewish Committee. The problem is the difference in approaches of the Israeli and the Palestinians.

The Palestinian side and supporters in the Arab world are pushing Rice to lean on the Israelis to be as specific as possible in writing this document. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit urged Rice on Tuesday to insist on a firm deadline. “We cannot negotiate and carry on negotiating until the end of history,” he said after Rice met with him and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, by contrast, is resisting such timetables and details, nervous that making too many compromises at this point could bring down his shaky government. The suggestion recently that he might be willing to turn over to the Palestinians some Arab-majority neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, triggered protest from some of the most hawkish and religious parties in the governing coalition.

Another reason that PM Olmert might be unwilling to commit to “timetables and details” is because demands are only going one way. This, however, concerns me:

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in an interview that Rice’s diplomacy “is completely different” in tone and timing than that of the four previous secretaries of state with whom he has worked. “There has also been a realization by the administration that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the core of many of their problems in the Middle East,” he said. “I think she realizes that American interests in the region can no longer be served by backing Israel alone.”

Does Erekat know something? The New York Times gives a quick overview of the trip to Bethlehem.

On Wednesday, the secretary traveled to Bethlehem, a city hemmed inside the West Bank by the barrier the Israelis have built. Ms. Rice, a daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian ministers, visited the Church of the Nativity, built on the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ, where she spoke of her own faith. “I think I could spell Bethlehem before I could spell my name,” she said. She added that a largely Muslim city like Bethlehem, which also includes Rachel’s Tomb, a sacred site for Jews, was a model for reconciliation. As she visited, Israeli jets roared overhead.

What was Dr. Rice thinking? Rachel’s Tomb has, by necessity, become a protected compound because the Palestinians made it a target during the beginning of the “Aqsa intifada.” And the Christian population of Bethlehem continues to decline.

The town’s Christian population has dwindled from more than 85 per cent in 1948 to 12 per cent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006. There are reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs.

Israeli jets are not the problem. Today’s Washington Post had a bit more on the Bethlehem meeting, in a piece titled “Rice hears Palestinians Grievances.”

Rice wrapped up four days of intensive diplomacy in the Middle East amid conflicting signs of how much progress she was making. At a Washington news conference, President Bush said he was encouraged by reports he was getting from Rice and alluded to Palestinian frustrations. “The Palestinians that have been made promises all these years need to see there’s a serious, focused effort to step up a state,” Bush said. “And that’s important so that the people who want to reject extremism have something to be for.”

But it’s also true that Palestinians have made promises all these years and it’s only right that Israel starts to see some of them be fulfilled. Fighting terror isn’t a confidence building measure. It’s a necessary action to make peace possible.

Rice described the current negotiations as the most serious effort at settling the Israeli-Palestinian dispute in seven years. She also said that listening to Palestinian civic leaders’ complaints was “sometimes sobering,” but added that every one of the people present endorsed a two-state solution to the problem. She refused to be drawn into criticizing Israel over the barrier. “Let’s be real — there is a security problem,” Rice said. “No one wants to have barriers, but there is a security barrier there. We have been told many, many times — and have been assured — that it is not a political barrier and it cannot be a political barrier. I look forward to the day when security is brought about in a different way.”

It’s good that she acknowledges the security problem.

Residents of Bethlehem are deeply frustrated by the economic devastation their small city has suffered since previous peace-making efforts collapsed and Palestinian violence surged. Tourism has declined precipitously. Even the landmark Jacir Palace Hotel, where Rice met with the civic leaders, is only 20 percent occupied. There are far fewer paying visitors, a hotel official said, than needed to break even.

Well that surge in Palestinian violence is important. That’s where the security problem comes from. And it’s the failure of the Palestinian leadership, not the wall, that is responsible. (If the hotel cannot even break even, how is it still open? My guess is that it’s getting funding from elsewhere.) But finally we get a sense of the real problem.

Hazboun said the secretary was “listening very carefully” to the group but had made no promises. He made clear that the Palestinians are counting heavily on Rice and Bush. “The United States is responsible for the peace process,” he said. “This is the most important request from us, that they have a successful conference.”

The United States is not responsible for the peace process. The two sides negotiating are. If one is negotiating in bad faith there will be no peace. What Hazboun and Erekat (quoted above) are saying is that it’s necessary for the United States to press Israel. But until the Palestinians take control of their responsibilities it makes no difference how much the United States pushes Israel and how much Israel accedes to those pressures. Peace will not come until the Palestinains do their part. The statements about the November talks demonstrate that the Palestinians still want their state handed to them. Because of that, there’s no reason to expect any breakthroughs in November.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.