Remember the Palestinians
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
As America is poised on the verge of a war to install a new, democratic government in Iraq, it seems ready at the same time to abandon its hopes for a new, democratic leadership for the Palestinian Arabs.
In his speech of June 24, 2002, Mr. Bush said, “I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror. I call upon them to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts.” The president went on, “reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled attempt to preserve the status quo. True reform will require entirely new political and economic institutions, based on democracy, market economics and action against terrorism.” Mr. Bush addressed the Palestinian Arabs directly: “You deserve democracy,” he said.
On Friday and again at the Azores, however, Mr. Bush gave a cosmetic change — the appointment byYasser Arafat of a longtime aide to the newly created post of prime minister — the American stamp of approval. This new prime minister has not been elected democratically by the Palestinian peo ple. Yet Mr. Bush all but endorsed him in Friday’s speech. Indeed, by the end of Friday’s speech, Mr. Bush had stopped speaking of democracy at all. “We believe that all people in the Middle East — Arab and Israeli alike — deserve to live in dignity, under free and honest governments,” the president said. What about under democratic governments? “There can be no peace for either side in the Middle East unless there is freedom for both,” the president said. Again, what about democracy?
If the Palestinian Arabs deserved democracy back in June, and if the Iraqis deserve democracy now, why don’t the Palestinian Arabs deserve democracy now instead of a leader handpicked by a corrupt terrorist? It’s a logical question. But it looks like the president is pandering to the same precincts in the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs section and in the capitals of Old Europe and the Persian Gulf that opposed freedom and democracy for the Iraqi Arabs, too. If Mr. Bush is smart, he’ll see the Arafat “prime minister” ploy as about as real as the Iraqi “disarmament.” To use the president’s own words, it’s a veiled attempt to preserve the status quo, when what’s needed is genuine reform.
