A Middle East Legacy For The Presidential Library

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is the likely site of the George Bush (43) Presidential Library. His library will reportedly be the most expensive Presidential Library ever built with an estimated construction cost of $500 million. This planned Bush Library will join the Presidential Libraries of all of our most recent Presidents. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush (41), Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon now keep their papers records and archives in one.
In fact, twelve Presidential Libraries can be found across America. Some charge admission for the public to see the pictures, films, letters, and records of the former Presidents and First Ladies. Like the ancient tombs of the Pharaohs, these Presidential Libraries stand as historical monuments to former United States Presidents.
Of course the problem for many of these massive libraries is what to put in them. A huge monument to a man needs some historic achievement. It needs to show impressive domestic success or some big foreign policy or world encompassing achievement. Indeed, the Presidential Library needs policy accomplishments and real legacies to be very relevant.
It is in the last year of the second four year term in office that the sitting Commander and Chief begins to consider the use of the word "former" in relation to his Presidential terms in office. The election for the next President of the United States is well underway. The United States Congress does even less than usual awaiting the upcoming elections and new presidential leadership. In fact the term "lame duck" is often used to describe an Administration's final year in the Oval Office.
It is for all these reasons that the President turns to foreign policy during his last year to find some final relevance. Often, presidential success in the final year of the second term is found overseas not with any "lame duck" domestic agenda. In the spectrum of foreign policy, the President's attention in his last year in office ultimately turns to Israel and the Middle East. The last two Administrations have tried to become the power broker for that troubled area of the world's elusive peace event in their final year in office. Indeed, peace in the Middle East would be a lasting legacy for any United States President.
The last major peace initiative sponsored by the United States between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs was in the last year of the second term of the Presidency of William Jefferson Clinton (during 2000). Clinton tried to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. That failed brokered peace formula was an Israeli "occupied" land swap for peace arrangement . The 2000 Clinton-sponsored peace negotiation was between Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and Yassar Arafat of the Palestinian authority.
The dubious ramifications of that last minute Clinton peace initiative are outlined in the book, "The Much Too Promised Land". The book's author and scholar, Aaron David Miller, writes about his experience as a top American negotiator in those talks which he describes as "the temptations of the ticking clock". Aaron David Miller writes: "By moving too fast and overreaching, the Clinton Administration ended up undermining the prospects of hope". History has taught us that the breakdown of that last minute peace initiative led to an escalation of violence in Israel. Indeed, eight years later, the prospects for peace in the Middle East are as elusive as ever. Of course, this foreign policy failure in his final year in office will not be highlighted in the archives in the Clinton Presidential library.
George Bush has started his final year in office in 2008 in the same manner as William Jefferson Clinton did in 2000. After seven years as President of the United States, Bush has just made his first trip to Jerusalem. Bush recently predicted that a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs" can happen" in 2008. Bush also used the word "occupied" to describe Israel's hold on the West Bank. It is obvious that the same failed diplomatic formula, an Israeli controlled land swap for the promise of peace in 2000, will be tried again in 2008.
However, the conditions for peace for Israel in the year 2008 do not exist. Today, things are far worse for Israel than in the year 2000. Iranian-sponsored terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah launch rockets into Israeli-controlled land every few days. Iran has indicated that Israel needs to be "wiped off the map". Palestinian authority President and Israel's apparent peace partner, Mahmoud Abbas, has a hold on his own position of power that is tentative at best.
It is very obvious that a Middle East Peace legacy will not appear in the archives of the Bush (43) Presidential Library. It should not be very surprising that another American administration that has governed for eight years will not be able to claim peace in the Middle East as an accomplishment. The fact is that it took United Kingdom Prime Minister, Tony Blair, ten years and thirty seven peace missions to bring peace to Northern Ireland. The problems in the Middle East involve several different countries and to achieve lasting peace is a more difficult and complex task than in Northern Ireland.
The fact is that it takes time, dedication, tedious diplomatic work, and plain luck to achieve a breakthrough on complex world problems such as peace in the Middle East. It requires a multi-year initiative and a persistence that comprises more than several months of last minute diplomatic work at the end of a President‘s time in office.
The reality is that the diplomatic breakthrough for lasting peace in Israel and the Middle East should be a focused objective throughout an entire Presidential term. Sadly, for the last two Administrations, it appears to have become nothing more than a final year initiative in search of a foreign policy legacy for the archives of a planned library.