Peace Offensive Bush re-election, Arafat demise lay groundwork for new U.S. peace push. RON KAMPEAS Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington t his first post-election news con- ference, President Bush empha- sized three times: Palestinian statehood. "I think it's very important for our friends the Israelis to have a peaceful Palestinian state living on their border," Bush said at his Nov. 4 press conference. If anyone had any doubts, he noted that he has espoused Palestinian statehood for two years, since his June 24, 2002, speech outlining the conditions for Middle East peace. "I meant it when I said it, and I mean it now," Bush said Nov. 4. Also significant was his agreement with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Israeli-Palestinian peace was a cen- terpiece of stability in the region. That contradicts a central doctrine of the president's first term: that the road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad — in other words, that creating a stable demo- cratic regime in Iraq would have a spillover effect on the Palestinians. With a major battle underway to retake the insurgent-filled Iraqi city of Fallujah, President Bush will be seeking all the support he can get from Europeans and from neighboring Arab states. A "Our numbers are down significantly in that part of the world," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which tracks U.S. approval rat- ings in the Arab world. "I fear that absent a dramatic change in how we approach the region, the problems will remain.'' Blair wants a summit on the issue as soon as possible, and White House spokesmen have su ested that it will be high on the agenda when he and Bush meet in Washington this week. Still, Bush is by no means the second- term president unleashed that some Jewish Democratic strategists tried to raise as a bogeyman in the final days of the election campaign. Bush's commit- ment to Israel's security and his friend- ship with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is unwavering, those close to him say. Central to it is his conviction that he cannot ask of other nations what he does not ask of the United States: As long as the United States does not truck with terrorists, nor should Israel, is his credo. However, that equation could change, U.S, officials make clear, with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's departure from power. Asked Nov. 5 how Arafat's declining health impacted U.S. peacemaking, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher dangled the prospect of a Palestinian state. "The president is committed to his two-state vision that he enunciated two years ago, trying to achieve a democratic and peaceful Palestinian state that can live side by side with Israel," Boucher said. Seize The Moment The timing — a president released from campaign concerns and a Palestinian policy released from a tyrant — is too good to pass up, suggested Stephen P. Cohen, a scholar with the Israel Policy Forum, an organization that promotes U.S. engagement in the region. "There is not likely to be a more opportune moment for the question of whether the Palestinians can move into a more democratic process," Cohen said. That constitutes a very important link- age between the election of the president to a second term and the future of Israel-Palestinian relations." Cohen, who meets regularly with U.S., Palestinian and Israeli leaders, says the sense of opportunity is pervasive, extending to Israel's staunchest support- ers in the administration, such as Elliott Abrams, the top Middle East official on Bush's National Security Council. "He is one of the people who is learning to be more interested in the solution to the Arab-Israeli problem," Cohen said of Abrams. "He won't be an obstacle." President Bush speaks to reporters at his post-election news conference Nov. 4. The linkage between the post-election and post-Arafat eras is not lost in Congress, where even the most steadfast of Israel's supporters regret the opportu- nity missed in the summer of 2003 when Mahmoud Abbas — the moderate who demonstrated a willingness to deal seriously with Israel — grew tired of Arafat's machinations and resigned as Palestinian Authority prime minister. Pro-Israel congressmen have said Israel and the United States could have done more to reinforce Abbas' political hand against Arafat through substantive ges- tures, such as larger prisoner releases and a settlement freeze. Now that Abbas is assuming the post- Arafat leadership along with fellow mod- erate Ahmed Qurei, two of Israel's most unstinting supporters in the U.S. House of Representatives — Middle East sub- committee chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., a senior member of the MONUMENT CENTER RODNICK BROS., INC. INC. 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