Bush Push for Mideast Peace a Lame Duck Move

MANAMA, Bahrain, Jan. 12, 2008— -- As President Bush presses for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that would also burnish his legacy, the lame-duck president faces persistent skepticism in the Middle East and in Washington policy circles about his ability to achieve it in the time he has left.

After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas this week, Bush declared himself hopeful that the outlines of a Middle East Peace agreement could be reached by the end of the year. There is no formal timetable for a pact, he said. But there is a natural deadline.

"I'm on a timetable," Bush said during the first stop ever by an American president in the Arab West Bank capital of Ramallah this week. "I've got 12 months in office."

The path to Middle East peace has been long and seemingly without end, one trodden by presidents Clinton and Carter before Bush. With a mere 12 months to go before the next president assumes office, Bush is mounting an effort that has many skeptics.

"The Middle East seems to be what lame duck presidents do," said Ken Pollack, Director of Research of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. "This is the kind of trip that he should have done sooner and he should have made them more frequently... By waiting, he's created much higher expectations."

Bush's current policy marks a reversal of his own concerns about leading Middle East peace efforts. Although Bush was the first president to call for a Palestinian state as part of U.S. policy, he has been critical of past peace forays by President Clinton.

"The only time that's appropriate for a U.S. president to call a summit (is) when it looks like something can get done," Bush told ITV in April 2002. "The problem is, the American president, when he calls a summit, better get it right. If a summit fails, if the president ... lays it out there and nothing happens, generally the ... follow-up is worse than the status quo.

Still in the middle of the president's weeklong tour of the Middle East, already Bush administration officials are dampening hopes for a quick peace pact.