Middle East: What Killed The Road Map — And Whither Mideast Peace Now?
By Jeffrey Donovan Just last spring, there was a new, cautious optimism in the Middle East after the fall of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the release of a U.S.-backed plan to forge peace between Israel and Palestinians. But in recent days, the so-called “road map” for peace was blown off course as Palestinian-Israeli violence returned with a vengeance. What happened? RFE/RL ponders the brief life of a doomed plan. Washington, 12 September 2003 (RFE/RL) — It wasn’t supposed to end like this. For months during the buildup to the Iraq war, supporters of toppling Saddam Hussein predicted his ouster would open up a window of opportunity to bring peace to the Middle East, much as victory in the 1991 Gulf War helped lead to the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians. And last May, that vision, also articulated by President George W. Bush himself, appeared to be on track. With Hussein defeated, Bush appeared intent on exploiting of the removal of his strategic threat to Israel to push
