Doaa El-Bey looks for any glimmer of hope for peace within US President George Bush's journey US President George Bush's visit to the region this week was full of promises and empty words widely expected not to bring the Palestinians any closer to recovering their usurped rights or establish a state alongside that of Israel. On the other hand, many commentators wrote that the visit benefited the Israeli and US sides rather than the Arab states. Bouthaina Shaaban described Bush as the Israeli envoy to the Middle East. Writing in the London-based independent daily Asharq Al-Awsat Shaaban said the aim of the visit was not to provoke the Arab states against Iran but to support the Israeli settlement- building policy and recognise the present situation in the ground as de facto. Meanwhile, issues like daily Israeli genocide against unarmed Palestinian civilians, collective punishment in Gaza, ethnic cleansing and the apartheid are not on Bush's agenda. The most dangerous objective of Bush's visit, wrote Shaaban, is his attempt "to persuade the Arab states to regard the Israeli occupation as the norm, and to officially deny, for the first time, the right of return of Palestinian refugees and confirm that Israel is a state for all Jews." He also aims to present Palestinian opposition to occupation as an act of terrorism. "Bush's objectives conform to his bloody and destructive policy in the region. No doubt that policy will meet with the same failure that his army encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan and that of his plans in Lebanon and Somalia," Shaaban wrote. The United Arab Emirates independent daily Akhbar Al-Arab described Bush's visit to the West Bank as a positive step during which he called, in a loud voice, for the establishment of a Palestinian state. However, the fact that he reached that truth after many years in office indicates his inability to deal effectively and efficiently with pressing conflicts in the world especially the Palestinian issue which has destabilised the Middle East for the last 60 years. Meanwhile, wrote the newspaper's editorial, he knows that he does not have enough time or power to take more positive steps towards a just settlement of the Palestinian cause. He also knows that his promises will not see the light of day because of the manoeuvres of both the Zionist lobby in the US and the Israeli government who do not wish to make any concessions to the Palestinians. "Bush's declaration is a positive step but it is not enough. It needs to be followed by practical steps and policies that can transform the idea or the dream of establishing a Palestinian state into reality on the ground," Akhbar Al-Arab said. It concluded by questioning whether Bush will be able during this year to take these steps and establish an independent Palestinian state. Unlike the editorial, Ali Al-Gharrash failed to see any positive steps in Bush's visit because it came at the end of his presidency "when he does not have the cards or influence to take decisive decisions". Al-Gharrash wrote the US was keen to leak news about the skirmishes between the US naval ships and Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz ahead of Bush's visit. In fact, the US aimed to send a message to the Gulf states that Iran poses the greatest danger in the region and that both Israel and the Arab states should cooperate to face such danger. In addition, it also tells the Gulf states that, "Bush is not ready to accept any form of détente between Iran and the Gulf" like that shown when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the GCC meeting in the Qatari capital Doha late last year or when the Saudi government invited Iran's president to visit Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage. The leak followed by the visit, as Al-Gharrash wrote in Akhbar Al-Arab, aims to sell more US weapons to the Gulf states which are supposed to be more scared of the Iranian threat. "The leak and the sole US presidential visit to the region reconfirm a decision taken earlier to maintain the state of instability in the Middle East especially in Palestine and the Gulf. It is a tour to destabilise the region rather than to treat its pressing issues," he added. Sultan Al-Hattab viewed Bush's visit as void of any benefit to the Palestinian side as it clearly aims to benefit the Israelis and the US. However, the most dangerous aspect in it is the fact that he used the term "the Jewish state". By so doing, Al-Hattab wrote, Bush is showing support to the Israeli right which works to make Israel a state for Jews only. That would give the pretext to call for expelling nearly 20 per cent of the people living in Israel and who are of Arab origin, or at least swapping them with the Israeli settlers living in the West Bank. During his visit, Bush tried to appear as the president who defends the interest of Israel in the hope that this would encourage US citizens to vote for his Republican Party in the next presidential elections. "The next few days will further show that the visit aimed to serve only Israeli and US purposes and that Bush's commitment to mobilise all powers against Iran far exceeds his serious commitment to peace in the Middle East," Al-Hattab wrote in the Jordanian independent daily Al-Rai. Urayeb Al-Rantawi could not find a reason why Bush showed great respect to the memory of the Holocaust in Israel yet declined to visit the mausoleum of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and lay a wreath on it like all other senior officials who visited the area where he was buried. In the Jordanian independent political daily Ad-Dostour, Al-Rantawi regarded that as a clear slap in the face of the Palestinians. However, what was more humiliating was the Palestinian government's attempt to stop the Palestinians from openly showing their opposition to Bush's visit and his refusal to visit the mausoleum of a Palestinian symbol and leader. Abdullah Nasser Al-Fawzan viewed Bush's failure to establish a democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq as black pages in the history of his presidency. However, Al-Fawzan wrote in the Saudi daily Al-Watan that the president had a good chance to reduce the number of such pages in his history by meeting his promise and establishing a Palestinian state in the hope that every Palestinian will feel he belongs to an independent nation. He concluded by questioning whether the Palestinians deserve to have their nation. He left the question unanswered.
