Powell Offers Support To Arab States
With peacemaking stalled, Secretary of State Colin Powell is ready to offer Arab nations U.S. support in promoting democracy and adapting to the modern world.
Powell will outline the Bush administration's intentions in a speech Thursday at the Heritage Foundation, a private research group.
He'll also vow to push ahead on the number-one political issue for most Arab states: the now nearly nonexistent, Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
It's not doing well, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier. Two weeks before Christmas, the little town of Bethlehem, like most Palestinian territory, is mostly silent, except for the Israeli troops who moved back in after the last bloody suicide bombing on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The Vatican has urged Israel to allow "free access" during Christmas in Bethlehem.
The Vatican issued its appeal to President Moshe Katsav, who met Thursday with Pope John Paul II and the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The Vatican said it restated its support for both Israel and a Palestinian state and the need for a rapid conclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"In particular, an appeal was made for free access to Bethlehem on the occasion of the upcoming Christmas celebrations," a Vatican statement on the meetings said.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers on Thursday killed an armed Palestinian trying to attack a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, five other Palestinians apparently trying to climb over a tall fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel were killed, and an Israeli court ruled that it has the right to try Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the Palestinian uprising.
Powell had planned to make the speech in early November, but held off while Iraq took center stage in U.S. policy-making in the Middle East and Gulf.
Powell will declare that U.S. interest in fostering democracy and reform among Arab nations is comparable to the attention the United States gives those goals in its European policy.
While Powell is not likely to unveil new peacemaking initiatives, the drive for economic and political reform is being coupled with U.S. promises to plug away at a settlement between Israel and the Arabs.
Eighty percent of Palestinians polled support continuing the uprising. 64 percent support continuing suicide attacks against Israelis – though that is down from 74 percent, last year.
Meanwhile, Israeli voters are leaning ever rightward. Only fifty percent of those polled favor a Palestinian state. That number does rise to 64 percent, if Yasser Arafat is not in charge.
The man who refuses to talk to Arafat, hawkish right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, got high marks, just weeks before the general election here. Fifty-seven percent believe he is the man best able to stop terror and bring about peace.
Sharon's nearest challenger, Labor leader Amram Mitzna, who favors an immediate return to peace talks with Arafat, barely mustered 19 percent.
To bring either Israelis or Palestinians back to peace talks, when both the leaders and the people are so far apart would take a monumental effort by the White House.
Critics are already saying that's not something Powell or Mr. Bush are going to do right now. They are dismissing this speech as diplomatic window-dressing for the U.S. campaign against Iraq — an attempt to make it look like Washington is trying to serve the best interests of the Arab world, when it's really out to serve its own.
Arab states want to see the U.S. put more pressure on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory. The White House says it is not going to do that until terrorism stops.
But there has been one significant development in the past couple of days: Israel agreed to turn over about $25 dollars of the $500 million dollars it owes the Palestinians in back taxes. A high-ranking Israeli official told Dozier without U.S. pressure, that never would have happened.