Progress in Annapolis?

Peace is supposed to descend on the Middle East. It's a goal to be achieved by the end of next year. It's a commendable goal that would prompt one to congratulate the parties involved. If it were only that easy. There have always been good intentions -- mainly in the form of initiatives and declarations -- in the past when it comes to the Middle East, just as there have been dates and deadlines set. The only problem is that they have expired without the desired result being achieved. Why should it be different this time?

In no way do I want to diminish the efforts made in trying to find a peaceful solution in the Middle East. It is just odd that, without even trying to get to the real core issues in the Middle East conflict, peace is now supposed to be possible -- more so than in the past. And that uneasy feeling makes one believe that it's only wishful thinking, particularly on the part of the US president. After all, George W. Bush wants to crown his presidency with at least one foreign policy success. But he overlooks the fact that declarations of intention alone do not suffice to achieve that end. Otherwise, we would have had a pacified, free and democratic Iraq as a role model for the rest of the Arab world a long time ago.

Control mechanisms stay on track

Still, President Bush has promised that the United States will act as a kind of control mechanism for the implementation of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has said that enough pressure will be placed on both sides to keep them on track toward their own, self-defined goals. This is a new move, considering that right at the beginning of his presidency, Bush declared that the US would not play the mediator role in any Middle East negotiations, thereby himself causing the now so regretted, years-long deadlock.

That Bush speaks so openly about establishing a Palestinian state is also good, and right. He is not the first US president to do so, but while it sounded like a vision for the future when Bill Clinton said it, with Bush, it sounds like a target for the negotiations during the next 12 months.

West Bank remains controversial

This is definitely progress. But, the president still does not seem to understand, for example, that not merely a few "illegal settlement posts" have to be dissolved to achieve that goal, but that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank will have to be completely vacated -- one of the greatest impediments to peace. Like no other president before him, Bush has stood behind Israeli policies in the occupied territories throughout his term of office, so he will now have quite a bit of work to do to convince others that it will be different in the future.

Despite all the skepticism, a step in the right direction has been taken in Annapolis. But the stretch to the finish line has hardly been shortened as a result. Many steps must still be made to get closer to that goal and, experience with the players in the Middle East as well as with this president, could teach us a lesson. That is: One way or another, things will go wrong.

Peter Philipp is DW's chief correspondent and an expert on the Middle East (als)