Sharon's Priorities
Prime Minister Sharon, moving quickly in the wake of the latest Palestinian attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel, has postponed indefinitely his visit to Washington. His decision is not for any lack of regard for the American president; the Israeli premier is an outspoken fan of President Bush. But the premier has his priorities straight, and if the events of the past few days have illuminated any point it is that the peace process the State Department and its Quartet partners have been pursuing so ardently with the Palestinian Arabs is irrelevant to the war that is being prosecuted against the Jewish State and its citizens.
Proponents of the peace process will insist the opposite. They will argue that the very agenda of the terrorists who struck in the Jewish capital Sunday, killing seven passengers on a bus, and in the town of Hebron, killing two Jewish civilians, is to halt the peace talks. So, they will insist, for Mr. Sharon to postpone his visit with Mr. Bush gives the terrorists just the kind of thing they want. But that is beside the point. The glaring fact is that the peace talks are taking place between Israel and a party that is, at worst, culpable in the attacks on Jewish civilians and, at best, has failed to prevent them. Even were the road map to point to some logical destination, Israel would still be under attack.
Hence the priority Mr. Sharon is attaching to a military response. He was reported late yesterday to be preparing to seal the West Bank. It would not be surprising to see new incursions and an expansion of the war. His insistence on fighting terror, rather than negotiating, is proven right again. The fact that Al Qaeda may be involved in the attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca does little other than to reinforce the logic of pressing for a military victory over the Palestinian Arab factions. There is little that is logical in the way of diplomacy while the military priority is unaddressed. No doubt Mr. Bush has understood this, the first president since Reagan to have shared this priority with an Israeli premier.
