Elusive peace in Middle East moves even farther away

How is the Middle East peace process going wrong? Let us count the ways.
Just a week ago, Yasser Arafat installed a new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, in an attempt to convince the world that he is still interested in peace with Israel. Just as likely, it was a move designed to make it more difficult for the Israelis to swoop into what's left of his West Bank compound and send him into exile.
There is no question that Arafat has a finely tuned sense of self-preservation and he had to be concerned that rising anger over a suicide bombing a few days earlier in Israel that claim 19 lives was going to culminate in his expulsion.
Surprise attack
Instead, Israel responded by launching an attack against a suspected terrorist camp in Syria, the first such incursion in 26 years.
So, while Israel and Syria traded angry accusations, Arafat did what he does best and began backpedaling. If Israel was going to allow itself to be preoccupied with Syria, Arafat wasn't going to give up any power unnecessarily.
And so, within a week, Arafat had his new interim prime minister threatening to quit, and rightfully so. Qureia knows that if he doesn't control the Palestinian security forces he is nothing more than a figurehead. And both Arafat and Qureia know that if Qureia doesn't have an interior minister, he doesn't control the security forces. So Arafat conspired to deny Qureia his choice for interior minister.
Any hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians depends on reining in Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions that are encouraging suicide attacks and other acts of terrorism against Israel. Whether Qureia could do that under any circumstance is problematic, but without a strong interior minister overseeing Palestinian security forces, nothing could even be attempted.
And so Palestinians are in danger of losing their second prime minister, and with him, the only opportunity to resume peace talks.
Moving the wall
Meanwhile Israel is actively pursuing its own lines of provocation. Last week, the Israeli Cabinet approved an extension of the wall being built between Israel and the Palestinian territories that would sweep around Jewish settlements far beyond the "Green Line" that has divided Israel from the West Bank since the 1967 war.
That action prompted Syria to call for a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel. And it fell to the United States to veto the resolution offered by Syria -- on the grounds that it was too one-sided. While the United States was correct in its assessment, its action further damaged its standing as an honest broker in the Middle East peace process.
Finally, at a time when the United Nations is taking a serious look at Iran's possible progress on developing nuclear weapons, comes word that Israel has modified U.S.-supplied cruise missiles so they can carry nuclear warheads from submarines.
It's a move that is obviously aimed at intimidating Israel's Arab neighbors. But at the same time, it will only encourage Iran to pursue development of its own nuclear arsenal. And an Iran with nuclear weapons is not only a threat to peace in the Middle East, but to the world.