Time is (fortunately) running out on Condi Rice. As our increasingly peripatetic Secretary of State makes here upmteenth photo op diplomatic drive-by to the Middle East, she is putting the finishing touches on a legacy that will add yet one more failure to her excruciating and unending list of diplomatic disasters in the region.
No secretary of state in recent memory has been as unfit to navigate the quicksand of the Middle East as Rice, and her record has repeatedly demonstrated her callowness. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, a deteriorating Palestinian conflict, the unchecked rise of jihadism -- all representing a cumulative toll on American interests and prestige. When I debated Rice in the 2000 presidential campaign on behalf of then Vice President Gore, I couldn't help but believe based on her performance that her entire career exposure to the Middle East probably amounted to a puff on a Sheesha (a.k.a. water pipe) at Stanford. Events have proven me correct.
Four months ago, in a desperate attempt to salvage a reputation tarnished by her central role fostering nearly a decade of painful global decline for the United States, Rice embarked upon a hasty, ill-conceived, and hapless attempt in Annapolis, Maryland to produce an agreement between Israel and one half of the Palestinian people, which was blessed by a promise from her boss to produce a comprehensive agreement before the expiration of his term.
Before Annapolis and the fanfare she orchestrated around it Rice was repeatedly warned by far more seasoned diplomats that not enough groundwork had been put in place, and that raising expectations without results would only set America back further in the tumultuous region.
Now, I, for one, believe that America has a central role in helping to foster peace in the region, and when the U.S. steps up to the plate, even if we do not immediately succeed, we are given regional credit for trying, and that is credit in the bank when we need it. But Rice has never truly committed herself to the enterprise, preferring instead to talk the talk of peace, but not walking the walk of peacemaking.
The Annapolis Summit that Rice insisted on convening appears to becoming yet another temporary, dying flicker of hope in Middle East diplomacy.
True, the Middle East hand she herself helped draw would have challenged the most seasoned and experienced secretary of state. Hamas' missile-driven determination to torpedo post-Annapolis progress, Israel's settlement expansion and blockades, and the weakness of the two principal leaders (Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) all constituted obstacles that had to be oversome.
But If there was going to be any hope that Annapolis would produce meaningful progress between Israel and the Palestinians, heavy, 24/7 American diplomatic lifting would be vital. Yet, rather than seize the initiative that Annapolis provided her, Rice demurred and dropped the baton once again, just as she has every time the Middle East beckoned her to do more than merely engage in drive-by diplomatic self-promotion. She has actually come close breaking her arm as she repeatedly patted herself on the back with every wheels up from the region, failing to appreciate that everything diplomatic in the Middle East is on endless life support thanks to her own missteps, requiring the constant attention of senior American diplomats.
Can Rice do anything to salvage Annapolis?
Probably not at this point. There is a three-ring diplomatic circus taking place, and no American ringmaster: in one ring the government of Yemen is attempting to mediate some form of reconciliation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, in the second ring, Egypt is attempting to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and in the third, Rice has been half-heartedly cajoling Olmert and Abbas to meet Bush's pipe dream to produce an agreement before the expiration of his term (293 days from now, for those who are counting). Each ring is linked to the other, and here again, Rice has proven unable to rise to the occasion. Instead, she had to abide Dick Cheney traveling to the region to lend his "enormous gravitas" (facetiously stated for those who miss the quotes) to orchestrate the appearance of positive movement.
The next president will have to pick up the pieces. The best that Rice should try to do at this point is the following:
1. Lend more overt support to Egyptian efforts to facilitate some tacit cease fire between Hamas and Israel.
2. Work 24/7 to urge Israel to expedite the removal of barriers that will enable more freedom of movement for the Palestinians.
3. Increase the policing capability of the Palestinian Authority to eliminate terror cells from the West Bank.
4. Facilitate an Israeli-Egyptian agreement to improve the humanitarian condition of Gaza's population while improving joint Egyptian-Palestinian policing of Gaza's borders with Egypt and Israel.
Rice has clearly bitten off more than she can chew. There is no chance that Annapolis will result in a final Israel-Palestinian agreement, and the parties have made that clear despite Bush's commitment and next visit to the region in June.
Now is the time with the few remaining months Rice has left to make it easier, rather than harder, for the next president to undo the damage she and her cohorts have brought to the region by concentrating on what is doable, and not the impossible.