Bush and a Mideast Plan: Holding Back
President Bush's statement today that he still does not know "what's feasible" in shaping a Middle East settlement was a disappointment, if not a surprise, for Arabs and Jews who wanted a signal that he has a plan that might give hope to Palestinians and security to Israel.

He stood today with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt on a sun-dappled hillside at Camp David, Md., where 24 years ago a first-term Democratic president named Carter announced a breakthrough for peace between Anwar el-Sadat and Menachem Begin. But Mr. Bush did not strike the pose of a leader who had fully decided to put his political fortunes on the line by applying the vise grip of diplomacy that will be necessary to get a peace deal.

The internal debate among Mr. Bush and his senior advisers has focused on whether strengthening institutions in the Palestinian Authority might be an avenue to orchestrate the removal or sidelining of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Today, Mr. Bush betrayed his own leanings in this direction.

"Chairman Arafat, as far as I am concerned, is not the issue," he said. "The issue is whether or not the Palestinian people can have a hopeful future." He added that he still believed that Mr. Arafat "has let the Palestinian people down."

…Mr. Bush's emphasis today on institution-building in the Palestinian territories falls substantially short of Arab hopes that the president would begin to lay out a political vision for Palestinian statehood and a time line to achieve it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/international/middleeast/09ASSE.html