Cheney: Middle East trip

Wednesday, March 12

US Vice President Dick Cheney's Middle East tour next week seems intended to arrest an alarming slide in diplomatic and strategic conditions, rather than move the process forward:

• Likely Israeli 'concession'. The Israeli announcement that it is commencing building activities in East Jerusalem seems targeted at shoring up the Right flank of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima-led coalition; recent State Department statements about such activities being "not helpful" are a placeholder, and Olmert will almost certainly offer to halt such construction as a gesture of goodwill during the vice-president's visit.
• Damage control. Cheney's hawkish bona fides are indisputable, and Olmert's 'concession' will earn political points for preserving the strong US relationship, rather than make him seem weak for giving the Palestinians something for nothing. That Cheney's trip follows so closely on the heels of an ineffectual visit to the region by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggests an urgent effort at damage control.

Cheney's visit certainly does not herald a softening within the Bush administration on Hamas. Indeed, it is hard to imagine any such shift while Presiden George Bush remains in office. Instead, the administration has decided not to let its own principles stand in the way of Israeli pragmatism.