Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Early Days
- 2 9/11 and the Search for a Policy
- 3 Roadmap to Disengagement
- 4 “New Realities on the Ground”
- 5 Arafat, Disengagement, Sharon
- 6 Olmert – Peace or War?
- 7 War in Lebanon – and Condi
- 8 From Mecca to Annapolis
- 9 The “Meeting” at Annapolis
- 10 Two Trips to Jerusalem
- 11 Final Days in Gaza and Turtle Bay
- 12 Lessons Learned
- 13 Conclusion
- Index
- References
2 - 9/11 and the Search for a Policy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Early Days
- 2 9/11 and the Search for a Policy
- 3 Roadmap to Disengagement
- 4 “New Realities on the Ground”
- 5 Arafat, Disengagement, Sharon
- 6 Olmert – Peace or War?
- 7 War in Lebanon – and Condi
- 8 From Mecca to Annapolis
- 9 The “Meeting” at Annapolis
- 10 Two Trips to Jerusalem
- 11 Final Days in Gaza and Turtle Bay
- 12 Lessons Learned
- 13 Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
Within days of the 9/11 terror attack, the Bush administration began to regroup, but its focus was on Al Qaeda and the sanctuary the Taliban were providing it. As Bruce Riedel recalled,
It was, from the beginning of October until the middle of December, all Afghanistan. People now, as is usually the case, think this was easy and it unfolded like clockwork. This was all being made up on the spot. These were plays that were being called at the line of scrimmage, and it was a lot messier and a lot more confusing and didn't look like it was about to succeed until well into middle-late November. And that's what the president and vice president were focused on.
Richard Haass, who had been in charge of the Middle East in George H. W. Bush's NSC eight years before, agreed that Israeli-Palestinian matters were peripheral at that moment: “After 9/11 what everyone focused on was counter-terrorism, Afghanistan, homeland security; I was put in charge of Afghanistan, and there was no linkage to Israel and its neighbors. There was no way, no one, even the most fanatical peace processer, could claim that what motivated Osama bin Laden was his commitment to a Palestinian state. So it was all just pushed back.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Tested by ZionThe Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, pp. 19 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013