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Making our peace with the Israeli election results will also require Americans to make a fundamental shift in our expectations about how even a theoretical step toward peace will happen. In his June 24 speech on the Middle East, President Bush seemed to under- stand that an American policy based on pushing Israel to make concessions that ignore Palestinian terrorism would not bring peace. The White House (as opposed to the U.S. State Department) was actu- ally way ahead of the media in treating Sharon and his followers as the politi- cal mainstream of Israel. But Secretary of State Colin Powell, who appears to have come to his sens- es about the need for action against Iraq, needs a similar change of heart about the need for a quick route or "road map" to a Palestinian state that will be dominated by terrorists. The State Department's cheering section for the Oslo myth also needs to be permanently disbanded. The exit of men like Dennis Ross and Aaron. Miller — veterans of the Clinton administration as well as that of the first Bush — from State is a start. Others, such as Daniel Kurtzer, America's dysfunctional ambassador to Israel, must follow. As he forms a new coalition (made easier by Likud's now commanding PIPES Community for 76years Keep your-valuables sa fely stored, 'right 'fit 'borne; with no monthly fee. 248-738-1500 3375 Orchard Lake Rd., North of Pontiac Trail Keego 0396 0 from page 35 from page 35 women's rights may strike Saudi princes as alien. On the other hand, they have no difficulty grasping the significance of a B-2 bomber or a carrier battle group." More broadly, Bacevich sees this approach as a proper "modesty and self-restraint" in U.S. foreign policy. Both Bacevich and Ajami make compelling arguments — and their articles should be read in full — but this analyst sides with Ajami. Addressing Bacevich's four points: • Japan had about as much "affini- ty for democracy" in 1945 as the Arabs do today, yet democracy took hold there. • There is no indication that an open political system inexorably leads to higher divorce rates and the other social changes — again, look at Japan. position in the Knesset), Sharon deserves to be given the maneuvering room he needs from American friends of Israel to get the cabinet that will best serve his pragmatic aims. There needs to be no pressure from these shores to include the forces of the left — or the right. Moreover, his choice needs no seal of approval from either diplomats or squeamish American Jews; his govern- ment — whether a coalition with par- ties to his right or those to .his left — will have legitimacy conferred upon it by a democratic election. Finally, it may also be time for many of us, who have underestimated Sharon or dismissed him as a brutal if fleeting political phenomena brought upon Israel solely by Palestinian terror, to start to reevaluate his plaCe in Israeli history. Sharon will be judged more by how Israel `fares by the time he leaves office than by how he won two elections. But his skill in solidifying Israel's alliance with the Bush administration and his revival of the Likud from its low point of 1999 to a position of ascendancy clearly mark him as one of the country's greatest political leaders. In the months ahead, Sharon will be challenged anew with the threat of war in the Persian Gulf and the continued campaign of pressure on Israel from abroad. If he continues successfully steering his country toward a place where it can defend its security without dis- tancing itself from the United States, there will be no reason for anyone — including the American media — to be surprised. ❑ • A famous American victory in Iraq and the successful rehabilitation of that country will bring liberals out of the woodwork and generally move the region toward democracy. (Saudi leaders are already leaking their plans to establish electing assemblies, something totally unprecedented in their kingdom.) • The United States cannot pass up a unique chance to remake the world's most politically fevered region. Sure, the effort might fail, but not even to try would be a missed opportunity. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week said that American success in Iraq "could fundamentally reshape [the Middle East] in a powerful, positive way," suggesting that even the Bush team's most cautious mem- ber is rightly coming around to the ambitious point of view. ❑