The Progress Report
by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin
www.progressreport.org
7/31/06

MIDDLE EAST
A Return To The Consensus

Yesterday saw the Mideast crisis escalate further, with the tragic loss of dozens of Lebanese lives after an Israeli air strike in Qana, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's aborted second effort at diplomacy. It's important to remember how we got here: Since President Bush took office, and even more so following the September 11 attacks, there has been wide bipartisan agreement on America's national security priorities: to support a sustained NATO-led effort to help rebuild the failed state in Afghanistan; to aggressively contain Iraq and weaken Saddam Hussein's regime with targeted sanctions; to work with allies to battle the global threats of terrorist networks, nuclear proliferation and climate change, with particular focus on the nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea; and to lead the Middle East to a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In each case, President Bush disregarded the consensus, and the consequences are evident in the crises erupting around the globe. Now, with the Middle East upturned again by the war in Lebanon, the case for a return to this progressive bipartisan national security consensus is stronger than ever.

ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSE OF HEZBOLLAH AND HAMAS: Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft wrote on Sunday that Hezbollah is not the "root cause" of the current Mideast crisis, as President Bush and administration officials have said; "it is a derivative of the cause, which is the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948." Others have echoed his analysis. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME), who led diplomatic advances in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, said recently, "There's only one resolution of this conflict and that's going to be through a negotiation that produces a two state solution, Israeli and Palestinian." Likewise, in a speech to the Brookings Institution on Friday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) argued that the "core of all challenges in the Middle East remains the underlying Arab-Israeli conflict. The failure to address this root cause will allow Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorists to continue to sustain popular Muslim and Arab support, continuing to undermine America's standing in the region, and the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and others -- whose support is critical for any Middle East resolution."