Here we go again. The US is attempting to broker a peace accord between Israel and the Arab community. (I say Arab community because Israel has been fighting a quarter-billion Arabs since Israel was formed in 1948.) So President Bush is scheduled to be in Jordan on Wednesday to chair a peace summit.

In their usual display of goodwill and cooperation in the days before peace talks, Israel has “eased travel restrictions” that were imposed as a result of yet another round of homicide bombings by Palestinians, allowing 25,000 Palestinians into Israel to work (what other nation allows the citizens of a nation at which they are at war to enter their borders to work?). In the past we have seen this cycle repeated often: (1) peace talks are scheduled, (2) Israel relaxes its grip on the Palestinian population, (3) homicide bombing take place. Will the cylce repeat itself or will new Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas be able to control the violence?

While Abbas is predicting that he can get Hamas to agree to a ceasefire sometime this week, this is hardly sufficient. First, the summit takes place on Wednesday and ceasefire is an obvious and necessary prerequisite to any peace plan. Second, another major source of rhetoric and violence comes from Arafat’s PLO – and Arrafat has his nose out of joint because he is not being included in the talks.

President Arafat called an urgent meeting of the PLO executive committee on Friday to discuss the result of the meeting of Prime Minister Abbas (Abu Mazen) with his Israeli counterpart Sharon and prepare for the Aqaba summit with the US President George W. Bush, Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeinah said.

The PLO concluded that the measures announced after Abbas-Sharon meeting, the second in two weeks, is not an alternative to the stipulations of the first stage of the ?roadmap.?

Translation: I’m feeling left out and I’m flexing my muscles to let everyone know that I’m no Al Gore. I’m still relevant!

Further evidence is a travel advisory from the State Department:

The spectre of possible attacks by militants aimed at derailing the latest peace effort rose as the United States warned its citizens in Israel to avoid public buses and crowded venues that have in the past been targeted by suicide bombers.
The advisory, which was posted on the U.S. embassy website in Tel Aviv, also warned of “credible” reports of possible plans to kidnap U.S. citizens in the Gaza Strip.

While Arab opinion places the burden of responsibility for Middle East peace in the hands of the U.S., one wonders why the responsibility is not theirs.