Oliphant:Kerry's Mideast Policy is miles from Bush's

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THOMAS OLIPHANT
Kerry's Mideast policy is miles from Bush's

By Thomas Oliphant | June 1, 2004

WASHINGTON
THE PROFOUND differences over foreign policy between John Kerry and George Bush can be encapsulated in two words, the Middle East.


Kerry's world view is designed to hit one element of the region's importance hard: that would be oil. It is designed to hit the other element more softly: that would be the festering conflict between Israel and its occupied and unoccupied neighbors.

For those who think Kerry thinks small, his determination to end nearly 40 years of dangerous dependence on imported oil from the Middle East is powerful refutation. It is just as important, however, that Kerry is determined to renew America's activist role in Middle East diplomacy, and to seek allies internationally to make that role more effective.

The contrast with the Bush administration could not be more dramatic. What is on display is the essence of passivity in areas that could not be more related to the threat of terrorism that will be part of our world for years.

Administration policy in the Middle East consists of periodic meetings to calibrate the US nonresponse to the latest outrage. There is no real road map, there are no partners; periodic, halfhearted attempts to restart a serious pursuit of settlement have gone the way of all halfhearted initiatives. This murderous atmosphere can be projected forward indefinitely.

In other times, that would be tragic. In these times, it is unacceptable. Experts on the region agree on precious little, but the one thing everyone agrees on is that a continuous Middle East conflict, with the United States as Israel's only ally, is at the core of Muslim anger worldwide, and at the core of the noninvolvement of Arab countries in the reconstruction of Iraq.
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Much more
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/06/01/kerrys_mideast_policy_is_miles_from_bushs/

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1. Bump

Too many believe false stories that take a negative spin on Kerry's policies. As if they haven't figured out by now that GOP operatives plant the meme that Bush and Kerry are the same. Just as they did to Gore in 2000.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Kerry is in Clinton's line on the Middle-East, which is where...

I stand!

[Killarney]

3. Great article! KICK!