His first Test = His last Test.

international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Friday November 05, 2004 17:57 by ipsiphi - .:.

President Bush of the USA has called for the full co-operation of Europeans in a wide range of issues, not least the shared commerce and trade which daily sees billions of $=€ cross the Deep Blue Sea and also including the War on Terror, which President Bush declared in the immediate aftermath of September 11 2001 in his first term.
Meanwhile Yasser Arafat the leader of the Palestinian people has spent a week in Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France where despite passing tests for cancer and many neurological illnesses, has this day entered into a level 4 coma.

o so pretty a building all that glitterss aint gold

The French government have confirmed that Arafat is in the best possible medical hands, and is not "clinically dead".
Meanwhile amidst a chaotic response to the sudden demise of their leader, Palestinian political representatives discuss the succession and whether any new leader ought be elected by the Palestinian people or appointed instead. It must be noted that the vast majority of the Palestinian people are not resident in the Palestinian territories which have been occupied by Israel for about forty years, and are denied citizenship and voting rights by both the Isreali and Jordanian states where they live and work.

President Bush must be mindful of the uncertainty facing both peoples arab and jewish alike of the Levant at this time, and the long standing support of the core European states and countries for Palestinian self-determination. A support and empathy perhaps illustrated by the role played by France in Arafat's medical care, or that of current EU presidency Nederlands in leading humanitarian funding of Palestinians and aid to agriculture and infrastructure, sadly lost to the conflict and construction of the Wall which was earlier this year declared illegal by the Hague court of international justice. The White House has in it's first term articulated a different approach to international justice tribunals, but in it's post election spirit of "trans-atlantic bi-partisanism" must seek to allay European doubts as to the legality, efficacy and strategic long term purpose of mlitary courts in Iraq (for the Saddam Hussein adminstration) or Guantanámo Bay.

It will not have escaped the attention of the policy makers of the White House that all main groupings termed as being terrorist (by EU, USA and UN alike) who are active in both the occupied territories and the Middle East in general have accused Israel of having played a role in Arafat's illness. Certainly no Israeli would claim that their state has ever shown much interest in allowing the man a recuperative sleep.-

Now is President Bush's first global test.

He has been elected as a popular president of the USA, a country of which most Europeans are proud of having played a rôle in creating, but one which is exceptionally different from ours' in it's world vision, reliance on evangelical beliefs and ability to plan military solutions to problems over such a terribly long time. And as such is a legitimate representative of US citizens. Where before the world might have blamed him they now can't. He's doing his job.

.:. Part of that job is Middle East Peace .:.