This is the weekend that the road map is being unfolded

This is an important weekend for the Middle East -- and for the prospect of world peace.
A month ago, President Bush unveiled a "road map" to Mideast peace and repeated his commitment to see an independent Palestinian state established by 2005. Now, the administration is taking to the road -- the president to South Carolina and Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East -- to sell the plan.
In remarks prepared for a commencement speech at the University of South Carolina, President Bush has given Arab nations throughout the Middle East a reason to support the plan. Peace, the president says, could bring the removal of U.S. trade barriers against the avowed enemies of Israel within a decade.
The president maintains a hopeful vision for the Middle East in which economic prosperity gives an emerging generation of would-be terrorists a reason to live, and to live in peace.
But in the meantime, a cease-fire must be established in the ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians. To that end, Secretary of State Powell will be in the region this weekend for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
Working for peace
President Bush has described Abbas as "a man I can work with and I look forward to working with." Bush, as had presidents before him, had no luck working with Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian leader who refused to lead his people to peace.
Arafat is now largely irrelevant to the negotiating process, but he continues to have potential as a mischief maker, perhaps even a deal breaker.
The question that will be answered, at least in part, this weekend is whether Sharon is still a man the administration can work with.
While he has historically been a strong supporter of Israel, Bush shocked Israeli right-wingers when he became the first president of the United States in more than half a century to refer to Palestine as a state. And clearly the road map developed by the Bush administration, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia calls for Israel to do more than Sharon's backers have been willing to do in the past -- specifically freeze building homes for Jews on the West Bank and rollback of some existing settlements.
Sharon reacted to the road map with more than 100 objections, which have been whittled down to about 15. He must recognize that if peace is to have any chance, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are going to have to make concessions.
At the same time, Powell must make it clear that the United States remains committed to the continued security of Israel as a nation and as a historical U.S. ally.