Hawks Control U.S. Mideast Policy

The confusing signals coming out of the Bush administration on the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict reflect the latest struggle between the radical hawks -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney -- and the realpolitiks of Secretary of State Colin Powell.


As in so many other major foreign-policy debates inside the administration, the radicals appear to be winning decisively, both because of the relative strengths of the major players and the effectiveness of a relentless media and pressure campaign waged by pro-Likud forces -- both within and outside the administration -- to tie Arafat to Bush's larger "war against terrorism."


For months, groups like the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) have published, primarily through the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly, a steady drumbeat of articles attacking Arafat and his Arab allies, denigrating Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's peace proposals, and pressing the administration to avoid the temptation to rein in Sharon.


As Sharon's tanks launched their siege of Palestinian leader's Yasir Arafat's heaquarters in Ramallah last week,the Journal wrote,"The only exit now...is to let the two sides confront each other until they decide they have no choice but to talk again. This means letting Israel defend itself against the kind of terror that Mr. Bush would never tolerate if it took place in New York. If that includes the exile of Mr. Arafat, so be it."