FILE PHOTO: RatherDan Rather, Columnist
VALENTINE'S DAY is almost upon us, and love is in the air. This year, could Cupid's arrow extend not only to couples dreaming of romance but also to states seeking to bury the hatchet of hostility? Well, last week saw Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conduct a tête-à-tête in Egypt, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on her inaugural international trip, go a-courtin' in Europe.
What might a valentine between Prime Minister Sharon and President Abbas look like? How about: Roses are red/Violets are blue/Arafat's gone /And now violence too.
The notion that the death of long-time Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat would usher in a new era of Middle East peace may have seemed naive to some seasoned observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- who asked rhetorically whether Arafat's passing would eliminate such perennial sticking points as Palestinian demands for a "right of return," the construction of West Bank Israeli settlements, and the status of Jerusalem. Yet last week we saw something that was at once familiar and refreshing.
MOMENT OF SUMMITRY
What was familiar was the sight of yet another moment of summitry, with Sharon and Abbas shaking hands over the latest ceasefire agreement. What was refreshing was the atmosphere that surrounded this moment, one of an agreement entered into freely between the two warring parties, and signs of something approaching a genuine public rapport between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
There is still a long way to go before the "vision of two states living side by side in peace," as articulated by President Bush and others, has a chance to be realised in the Middle East. There will almost certainly be setbacks along this road, and long pauses for breath before the major hurdles of the past can be cleared. But, at long last, the world dares to hope again that two war-weary peoples have made a significant first step.
Which bring us to Secretary Rice's recent sojourn in Europe. The secretary's aides told The New York Times that her intent was "not to dwell on whether Europe and America loved each other ... but to issue a kind of "call to arms" for freedom, the stated guiding principle of President Bush's second-term foreign policy.
With that in mind, one might imagine Secretary Rice's valentine to the continent west of the Danube: Shall I compare thee to 'New Europe'?'/That would seem, now, intemperate/Rough winds still blow abroad and we may/yet need France and Germany.
Secretary Rice signalled the Bush administration's hopes for a thaw in the lately chilly relationship between the United States and key European allies by delivering the central speech of her European trip in Paris, centre of diplomatic resistance to the Iraq War.
The nations of 'Old Europe' will ultimately choose whether or not to support U.S. moves abroad based on what they perceive as their individual interests. But by giving a speech that emphasised the historic and ideological bonds between the United States and France, and which joined both nations as "We on the right side of freedom's divide," the new secretary of state showed a rhetorical style that, to paraphrase one European diplomat quoted in The Washington Post, has a chance to become part of the substance of a renewed relationship.
New hopes for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the completion of Iraq's first competitive nationwide elections in nearly 50 years, would appear to make this the ideal time to, in Secretary Rice's words, "turn away from the disagreements" of recent years. So is this the start of a bea-yoo-tiful friendship? Stay tuned.
Dan Rather is a television broadcaster(c) 2005 DJR Inc. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
