Letter to the Editor: Mideast talks need greater diligence

The Boston Globe

April 27, 2008

By Stan Fleishman, Boston Chapter

I have been futilely searching the Globe daily for some small ember that would indicate that the flame of hope for Mideast peace, lighted at the Annapolis Conference, has not yet been extinguished. It was with great pleasure, therefore, to find an article relating fruitful back-channel contacts between Israel and Syria regarding the exchange of the Golan Heights for a peace treaty ("Abbas asks White House for help in Mideast peace talks," Page A4, April 24). However, the same article also shows that this and other promising recent developments, such as a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, could easily be scuttled.
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President Bush must exercise his role of monitoring and judging the fulfillment of commitments of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority under the US-backed road map. He must push Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to freeze settlement construction and improve life for Palestinians by increasing movement and access in the West Bank, while insisting that Palestinians improve their security infrastructure and bring about a cessation of rockets fired into Israel.