Muddled US mideast policy

In the latest Capital Commentary from the Center for Public Justice, James W. Skillen asks, "Why Save Arafat?" Writes Skillen:

Last year, the U.S. joined with the European Union, Russia, and the U.N. to endorse a "road map" to an eventual Middle East peace settlement. Then, suddenly, in the middle of April, without consulting the other three partners or considering the Palestinians, the president endorsed an Israeli plan by Sharon to annex permanently some sizable, illegal, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to remove Israeli settlers in Gaza sometime next year. Most of the deal violates 40 years of U.S. and international agreements. Senator, and presidential candidate, John Kerry, also endorsed the plan.

On April 27, following the Bush-Sharon meeting, 100 former British diplomats, hardly America's enemies, wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair, to express dismay. The "new policies" announced by Bush and Sharon "are one-sided and illegal and...will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood."

Do Bush and Kerry imagine that U.S. interests in freedom, democracy, peace, and oil can all be secured with only one Middle East ally amidst growing anti-Americanism both in and far beyond that region?