Bush's decision to call the Israeli occupation of Palestine an "occupation" proves something important: There's just no way for an American president, no matter how sympathetic to the Zionist cause, to maintain the Likudnik position on all the conflict. Hell, as Ariel Sharon proved, there's no way for a Likudnik Prime Minister to sustain the Likudnik position on the conflict. Both sides have their grievances, and their needs, and there is no possibility of progress without granting the basic validity of the Palestinian argument. Whether you believe it, or are sympathetic to it, is almost beside the point. Both sides need this constant chaos to ease, but neither side is willing to simply fold en route. A compromise will have to be worked out, it will probably require American pressure on Israel and European pressure on Palestine, and a prerequisite for that is a basic respect for the Palestinian cause. The negotiator Dennis Ross, who's not nearly so liberal on these issues as I would like, starts out his book on the Middle East by laying out the Palestinian, American, and Israeli narratives, all in succession. The issue, he implies, isn't whether they can be integrated. It's whether a solution can be found in which they are all simultaneously respected.
