Summon the Courage to Act

Palestinians and Israelis are trapped in an increasingly mindless cycle of destruction, one that now seems driven more by the need to mollify domestic constituencies than by any hope of breaking the other side’s will.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon each insist that the other must act first to stop the violence, a demand that assures inaction since each fears being perceived as the weaker party. So the killing goes on, with each new outrage deepening an already profound sense of hatred and despair. The situation cries out for intercession to restore some measure of sanity and proportion. Washington seems ready to answer that cry.

Monday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed the recommendations of the international fact-finding commission on Israeli-Palestinian violence headed by former Sen. George J. Mitchell. That is a big step by the Bush administration toward high-level involvement in efforts to restart negotiations for peace. Two of the Mitchell panel’s proposals loom especially large: The Palestinian Authority must discourage incitements to violence and move decisively to prevent terrorism. At the same time, Israel must freeze all expansion of its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

These are doable steps. All that’s needed is for Arafat and Sharon to muster the political courage to take action in the face of opposition from domestic extremists. Arafat’s large militia force and formidable internal intelligence organization give him the ability to restrict the street demonstrations that produce confrontation with Israeli forces and usually deaths. And he knows where to find the Hamas leaders who send fanatics to bomb buses and shopping malls. In the past he kept them locked up and neutralized. He can do so again.

Sharon has rejected any freeze on settlement activity, with the familiar claim that building must continue to provide for natural population growth. It is a specious argument meant to hide his intention to broaden and tighten Israel’s hold in the territories. Settlement expansions mean seizing additional Palestinian land, and any new housing construction only adds to the Israeli presence in territory that eventually must be part of a Palestinian state. “Natural growth” expansion is one more needless impediment to reaching a peace settlement.

Powell has designated veteran diplomat William Burns, nominated as assistant secretary of State for the Near East, to work with Israelis and Palestinians to implement the international panel’s recommendations. And he has asked the European Union and others to use their good offices to help defuse the conflict. There is a chance that Arafat and Sharon may be ready for a face-saving way to extricate themselves from the quagmire they have plunged into.

The United States properly is not interested in trying to impose a settlement. Its wholly pragmatic approach is to see the violence controlled as an essential prelude to bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. At that point the United States might again offer to serve as a facilitator in peace talks.

Washington should not be shy about using its considerable political and economic leverage to damp down a crisis that, besides bringing misery to the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, threatens American interests in the Middle East.