Powell Mission Could Temper Criticism

Douglas Kiker, Steve Chaggaris, and Susan Semeleer of the CBS News Political Unit report from Washington.

Mr. Bush announced plans Thursday to dispatch the secretary of state to the Middle East to help stem the escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

The president said that Israel must pull back its troops from Palestinian cities it occupied in recent days, and called on Arab nations to crack down on terrorists.

"The storm of violence cannot go on," Mr. Bush said, "Enough is enough."

Mr. Bush's remarks come after a week of what critics have described as inconsistent reaction from the administration – and virtual inaction from Mr. Bush – as the violence in the Middle East mushroomed.

Last Friday, while the president was on his ranch for the Easter weekend, Powell held a news conference and said the United States continued to back Israel's military action against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

But the next day, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank city of Ramallah. The United States - Israel's closest ally - signed the resolution, further muddying the administration's stance on the region.

By Monday, Mr. Bush still had not commented on the crisis, but aides had repeated the administration's apparent position on the Israeli-Palistinean situation: Let the two parties work everything out.

Criticism from Congress mounted as Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; Arlen Specter, R-Penn.; and Joseph Biden, D-Del., all came out and said the administration needed to be more hands-on.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay on Wednesday called for a stronger backing of Israel and to forget about continuing to try to broker peace.

"The time has come to drop the empty pretense that we can serve the region as a mere broker," DeLay said.

DeLay echoed the sentiments of William Kristol and other conservatives, who penned an open letter to the president yesterday.

"It can no longer be the policy of the United States to urge... Israel to continue negotiating with Arafat," Kristol wrote.

The letter asked Mr. Bush to classify Arafat as a terrorist - which the administration has yet to do - and called the Palestinian Authority "one spoke of the terrorist network."

Reps. James Leach, R-Iowa, and Lois Capps, D-Calif., wrote a letter to Mr. Bush yesterday suggesting he send former Presidents Bush, Carter and Clinton to the region to "help end a dangerous conflict before it poses an even greater threat to the region, to our interests, and indeed, to the world."

Foreign policy experts said Mr. Bush's decision to dispatch Powell indicates the Bush administration's realization that the escalating violence in the Middle East could no longer be ignored.

"The administration foresaw a debacle. They looked into an abyss and saw it spinning out of control," said Richard Fairbanks, president of Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Shibley Telhami, a professor of government and politics at The University of Maryland, said dispatching Powell to the region is a major change in U.S. policy from its relative non-involvement in recent weeks.

"This is the beginning of a major American involvement and there is no other way of looking at it," Telhami said. "But, it also means Bush now has to stick behind it. He can no longer sit on the sidelines."

James Steinberg, who served as Deputy National Security Adviser for President Clinton from 1996 until 2000, said sending Powell is the clearest sign yet that the administration plans to work to stop the escalating violence.

The potential pitfalls – including the possibility of an unsuccessful mission – are outweighed by the symbolism of dispatching one of the administration's most important officials, Steinberg said.

"Obviously, there are some risks in sending Powell, but in the current environment the administration will get points just for engaging," Steinberg said in an interview.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, backed off his criticism Thursday. "President Bush is doing the right thing in getting more personally involved and outlining his vision for making political progress in the Middle East," Biden said.

A clear U.S. policy will be critical to a successful Powell mission, experts said.

"The key is whether they have a concept to go along with being pushed into action," Steinberg said. "Do they have a package of ideas that everybody can begin to jump on board with to end this cycle of violence?"

If Powell comes back empty-handed, and the violence continues to rage, Steinberg says it should not have a long-term effect on the Bush administrations ability to play a role in easing tensions in the region.

"You always worry about loss of prestige, but in this case the loss of prestige is coming from the failure to engage at all," he said.

Tom Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, said Mr. Bush's decision to send Powell indicates the president has "caved" to pressure from Europe and the Arab world, but he generally gives the administration high marks for its handling of the crisis.

"It's not an A+ ... but by and large, Bush has handled it better than any other American president," Neumann said.

If Powell fails to end the violence in a single mission, Telhami argues, it cannot intimidate the White House from remaining engaged.

"If Powell comes back and does not succeed, the president cannot just throw his hands up," Telhami said.