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WASHINGTON-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left for the Middle East on Monday to try to salvage U.S.-sponsored peace talks derailed by Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli towns and Israel's military response in Gaza.With U.S. credibility at stake, Rice faces an uphill battle to revive peace talks suspended over the weekend by pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Washington wants those talks to result in a peace treaty by the end of the year but that hope seems increasingly unrealistic.While Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to international appeals, a senior Israeli official described it as just a "two-day interval" during Rice's visit.More than 100 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza offensive, which followed rocket attacks by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli towns. The U.S. reputation as an honest peace broker is under the spotlight again because of Washington's close ties to Israel.U.S. officials said Rice would press Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to get back to talks despite the violence in Gaza, which Hamas seized in June, but conceded the timing of her long-arranged trip made it difficult."The most important thing is to keep moving the talks along," said a U.S. official who asked not to be identified."Certainly we do want to see negotiations resume," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "All this points out the need for there to be progress in the negotiations and ultimately have a two-state solution. That's the answer to the violence that we've seen."We regret any loss of innocent life that has occurred, and certainly hope that the actions will end in the near future," he said. Asked if he was referring to the Israeli actions, Casey said, "both sides."On Wednesday, an Israeli civilian was killed by a rocket, the first such death since May.In the run-up to the Annapolis conference in November that kicked off the talks, scores of former U.S. diplomats and Middle East experts warned Rice of the dangers of cutting off Gaza and isolating Hamas, which won 2006 elections there, saying this could ultimately derail any progress made in Abbas-Olmert talks.MISTAKE TO GO
Some experts were skeptical whether Rice, whose first stop is Egypt on Tuesday, should go at all and predicted her presence could exacerbate rather than reduce tensions.Casey said he was not aware that any consideration was given to Rice calling off her trip."I think it is a mistake for Rice to travel to the region at this time. The public in the region sees the Bush administration as partly responsible for the devastation in Gaza and her appearance on the scene will only add to the anger," said Middle East expert Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland.
Telhami said any revival of the peace process would have little resonance in the region. "It's hard to see what good the trip can accomplish," he said.Middle East expert Nathan Brown, said her presence would only be useful if she had something to offer, such as a cease-fire deal, and that did not appear to be the case."The reason she is going is part of a process that is not leading anywhere to begin with-the Annapolis process," said Brown, director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University.Israel says it is acting in self-defense to curb an increasing number of rocket attacks by Hamas Islamists and has shrugged off a U.N. accusation that it used "excessive force."Abbas, who spoke to Rice on Sunday, ordered the talks be suspended until the "aggression" stopped.In her talks with Egypt's president and foreign minister on Tuesday, Rice will be looking for answers over how Cairo can secure its border crossing with Gaza.The border was blown apart in January by Hamas, enabling hundreds of thousands of Gazans to cross over into Egypt to get goods not available because of an Israeli economic blockade. Israeli officials have said some appear to have brought back arms and components to build rockets.The border has since then been sealed, although Egypt opened it up over the weekend to let dozens of wounded Palestinians receive care in Egyptian hospitals.Rice is set to meet Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday in the West Bank and will then go to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli leaders, before leaving for Brussels on Wednesday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
As in the days of Noah....
