Hopeless in Hebron:As Israeli troops destroy the symbol of Palestinian authority in this biblical city, moderates on both sides say Bush's speech has only made matters worse.

July 3, 2002 | HEBRON, West Bank -- A pile of rubble is all that's left of the symbol of the Palestinian Authority's presence in this divided biblical city. The "Muqata," as the massive British Mandate-era police fort was known, towered over large parts of the city for almost three-quarters of a century. The Israeli army says it blew up the hilltop complex over the weekend because it had information that 15 wanted militants were holed up inside. But after several days of searching through the debris no bodies have turned up, and Palestinians say it was just an excuse to demolish yet another symbol of P.A. control.

"The Muqata to us was what the Pentagon is to Washington, the World Trade Center towers to New York," proclaims Abbas Zaki, in an unabashed bid for Western sympathy. Zaki is a local leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and a member of the Legislative Council, the Palestinian parliament. Under curfew in his house on the edge of the city, he believes, like most Palestinians, that the Israeli demolition of the security and administrative headquarters is part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's longstanding plan to dismantle the P.A. and depose Yasser Arafat -- a plan he charges is now backed by the U.S. "We know that Sharon has wanted this for a long time; now Bush has also said it."

Outside the Bush and Sharon administrations and pro-Likud commentators in the U.S. media like William Safire, it is almost impossible to find anyone who can detect in last week's major Middle East address by President Bush an effort to actually come to grips with the conflict. Instead, both moderate Israelis and Palestinians regard it as yet another attempt by the Bush team to avoid having to deal with the situation. In fact, by setting out the preconditions for a peace process the way he did, Bush has assured that they will never be met. What was needed was not yet another plan, but immediate steps that would have led to a breaking of the deadlock. Bush called for a change in the Palestinian leadership, but the reality is that in the Middle East right now neither side has leaders that are regarded as ideal peacemakers. Yet they are the ones who have to be dealt with.

The successful regime change in Afghanistan, it would seem, has gone to the administration's head. But Palestinians make it clear that no Karzai can be imposed on them.