Some roadmap, eh?
For full disclosure, I'll admit that I am not an expert when it comes to Israeli/Palestinian relations. There is so much one can learn about this conflict that it requires years of study which I just don't have under my belt yet. Not to say that I'm not paying attention.

So maybe ignorance would explain why I thought, initially, that Bush's Mideast "roadmap" for peace between Israelis and the Palestinians might be working. Maybe I was just being hopeful. I know now that I was being naive. One should know better then to think, after decades of conflict, that Israelis and Palestinians would suddenly see the light and make peace with each other. Both sides are too stubborn to do such a thing. Hamas is responsible for the despicable suicide bombing on a bus in Jerusalem today which killed 16 people, but that was in response to Israel targeting a Hamas leader and critically injuring him in an assassination attempt. Now it looks like both sides are back to normal again.

What role does Bush have in all this? To be fair, you can't blame the man for causing this conflict, what's happening right now would probably still be happening if Gore was in office. But like it or not, Bush is involved. It was the Bush administration which demanded the Palestinians to pick a new leader to work with Israel, and that's how new Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas came onto the scene. A man that Palestinians consider to be mass murderer, Ariel Sharon, was reelected as Prime Minister there. Sharon hates Palestinian Authority President Yassar Arafat so much that he wishes he killed him when he had the chance. Needless to say, Sharon refused to work with Arafat and you can't have much of a peace process when both parties refuse to meet, so that's why the Bush administration demanded that the Palestinians pick another leader.

(This is starting to sound like a soap opera, isn't it?)

Well, this new leader is turning out to be pretty ineffective. Whether or not this is because of Bush will never be known, but the Bush administration doesn't appear to be helping him. I remember reading an article last week which discussed the breakdown of talks between PM Abbas and Hamas leaders. Abbas wants Hamas to stop committing violent acts against Israel. But Hamas ended the talks, they were rather pissed off at a speech Abbas gave. This speech, the article said, was penned by Bush advisors and the draft was given to Abbas' advisors for review. I reread that paragraph 4 or 5 times and thought to myself, "You gotta be shitting me." Abbas delivered a speech that the Bush administration wrote for him?! Well gee, no wonder Hamas is pissed.

Couple this with the fact that Iraq isn't exactly a powderkeg of peace right now, with the situation there about to blow up in our faces soon, you have to wonder what exactly Bush thinks "peace" is. The actions of his administration have not helped the Middle East achieve peace, and only time will tell if his actions have harmed the region.

Hm. Right about now, something tells me that we should have elected a candidate for President who is fluent in Arabic and well-educated about the Middle East. But noooo, we couldn't because the Democrats told us that voting for Nader was a vote for Bush.