Straight Talk in Texas

The road from Jerusalem to the West Bank offers a clear view of the settlement outposts that worry President Bush and the Palestinians. Perched atop hills are mobile homes plopped down on land Israel seized in the 1967 war with Arab nations. Cut off from roads, power lines or sewers, the settlers expect their homes to eventually be absorbed within larger, more established settlements nearby that are not likely to be removed.

Bush last year signaled to Israel that major settlements could stay but warned against expanding them. On Monday, Bush did the right thing by strongly reiterating the policy in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It was a message Sharon did not want to hear, even though aides said he expected it, and one that Palestinians should take as evidence of Washington’s good faith in trying to help both sides end their decades-old conflict.

Sharon is in political trouble with the right wing of his Likud party, which opposes his plan to evacuate 21 Gaza Strip settlements where 8,500 Israelis live surrounded by more than 1 million Palestinians. Most Israelis support removing the settlers; so does Washington. Bush’s invitation to meet Sharon at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, rather than the more pedestrian White House, should help the prime minister win political points at home. Invitations to Crawford are highly valued; foreign visitors display them as badges of Bush’s esteem.

There’s a danger that Sharon will stop evacuations after the pullout from Gaza and four small settlements in the West Bank. Most nations consider settlements on land seized in war illegal, even if Washington says the bigger communities can stay. Many of the more than 200,000 West Bank settlers should be moved inside Israel’s borders. Israel also will have to give some land to an eventual Palestinian state if it hopes to lance the boil of nearly four decades of occupation.

Bush will have to push Sharon not to halt the evacuations once Gaza becomes Palestinian territory, now planned for July. The president also rightly insists that the Palestinians and their president, Mahmoud Abbas, end terror attacks against Israel.

Sharon’s visit occurred after months of relative peace in Israel, a testament to Abbas’ attempts to get groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to heed a truce. Sharon and Bush refused to deal with Abbas’ predecessor, Yasser Arafat, who died in November. A renewal of contacts since then has improved chances for a lasting peace, though that still remains distant.

U.S. involvement is necessary if it is ever to happen. Bush’s willingness to speak publicly and frankly with both sides could help reduce suspicions that the U.S. is giving Israel a blank check, or is selling out the Jewish state by its demand that settlements grow no larger.