It is generally accepted that US presidential candidates make promises they know they cannot keep. But it smacks of unconscionable and irresponsible pandering for a US president to do so.
Yet that is precisely what President George W. Bush did yesterday when he promised to broker peace between the Israelis and Palestinians:
I believe there’s going to be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office . . . I’m on a timetable . . . I’ve got 12 months.
Of course, with all of media attention focused on the race to succeed him, not to mention the perceived irrelevance of his lame-duck presidency, Americans can be forgiven for having no clue that Bush is on this delusional peace mission. But I doubt anyone in Israel or Palestine took him seriously.
After all, Bill Clinton tried to no avail to attain this diplomatic Golden Fleece during the eight years of his presidency. Not to mention that it was patently obvious to the world that, for seven years now, Bush couldn’t care any less about peace in the Middle East.
But listening to him yesterday, I could not help thinking about the peace mission undertaken in 1938 by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain. Because Chamberlain was equally delusional when, in reliance on Hitler’s word, he said to the British people:
My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.
That said, I find it ironic, if not instructive, that on the day Bush was making his quixotic pronouncement about peace in the Middle East, former British prime minister Tony Blair was making a mercenary announcement about his plans to rake in millions as an adviser to America’s third-largest bank, JP Morgan Chase.
To appreciate the full scope of this irony, however, you’d have to know that only six months ago, Blair was speaking in equally quixotic terms about the prospect for peace upon his appointment as Middle East envoy working on behalf of the US, UK, UN, and the EU (the so-called “Quartet”).
But this sets up the prospect not so much for peace in our time as for a competition between these two old war buddies for a redeeming and lasting legacy….
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