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an independent newspaper EDITORIALS
Back to the Middle East table
Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Friday. This is good news and an important diplomatic achievement. If Israelis and Palestinians could, within the one-year time frame specified by Ms. Clinton, agree to live in two peaceful neighboring states, the benefits would be unbounded: for Pal- estinian well-being, for Israeli security, for prog- ress in the Middle East more broadly. But the welcoming of good news shouldn’t morph into naive celebration. Ms. Clinton was amply justified in warning of obstacles ahead. The most obvious of those, as she said, will come from the unambiguous “enemies of peace.” Hamas, which controls a good chunk of what would become a Palestinian state, might well re- spond to progress in the talks with increased at-
I Progress, and obstacles, on the road to a lasting peace
T TOOK a lot longer than he hoped, but President Obama has managed to persuade the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Au- thority to sit down together and negotiate without preconditions, as Secretary of State
tempts at violence, and terrorism from other quarters is also likely. Israeli settlers and their supporters who oppose not peace but any ceding of territory may engineer provocations of their own. There are also potential obstacles within the
talks. Is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netan- yahu truly committed to a two-state solution? Many Arabs have their doubts. It will be impor- tant for him not to allow next month’s scheduled end of a settlement moratorium to abort the negotiations. Is Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas truly willing to accept, once and for all, Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state? Given his inability to say yes to past reasonable offers, many Israelis have their doubts. It will be important for him to en- gage substantively and not wait for the United States to impose terms. And even if both leaders are willing to compromise, are they also capable of bringing their polities along?
Finally, the obstacles lie in the necessary com- promises. Yes, the outlines of a deal are well un- derstood by all, but that does not make them easy. Palestinians will have to accept that Pales- tinian refugees and their descendants will never move to Israel, except perhaps in token numbers. Israelis once again will be asked to cede control over territory for intangible and reversible prom- ises of peace and recognition. No one should underestimate the risks of that, especially given the unwillingness of Arab states to offer to Israel even the minor concessions of goodwill that Mr. Obama asked for. The region can hardly afford another cycle of
raised expectation giving way to terror and war- fare. While talks proceed, so must the efforts to build Palestinian institutions on the West Bank and to promote Israeli-Palestinian security coop- eration there. We can hope that, this time, the cynics about Mideast peace will be proved wrong. But we shouldn’t count on it.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
dletters@washpost.com
To build or not to build the mosque
In his Aug. 17 op-ed column, “Moral midgetry,” Richard Cohen rightly complained about foolish analogies raised by some observers in the dis- cussion of whether the proposed mosque in New York should be built, but he himself made a ques- tionable analogy. Decrying the notion that public opinion should be taken into account, he noted that President Abraham Lincoln didn’t take public opinion about slavery into account. But if you want to improve interfaith relations, public opinion should be taken into account. Those who plan to build the mosque say they want to improve interfaith relations, but if they build the mosque on the proposed site, relations will deteriorate. They should bow to public opin- ion and build it somewhere else. STEPHENMILLER, Reston
Deepwater debacle
Preventing another disaster in the gulf
H
OW, EXACTLY, did the government fail before the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico? A report from the White House Council
on Environmental Quality inadvertently makes at least one thing clear: The problem wasn’t an underdeveloped drilling approval process. Starting with the production of a guiding five- year plan for oil and gas on the Outer Continen- tal Shelf and ending with a series of site-specific approvals, the offshore drilling regulatory proc- ess (shown at right) is byzantine enough. It doesn’t need more layers of approval. But the regulation was misapplied. Federal
officials excluded BP’s drilling permit from en- vironmental review based on documents pro- duced in the 1980s, before deepwater drilling was common. Even more recent papers in the chain of approvals before the Deepwater Hori- zon accident understated risks associated with deepwater exploration, where blowouts are low-probability but high-consequence events. For example, they did not consider the mas- sive Ixtoc I blowout when assessing the likeli- hood of a catastrophic accident because the spill wasn’t in American waters. Perhaps includ- ing Ixtoc wouldn’t have changed regulators’ cal- culations about the probability of an accident — after all, it was just one well of many thousands in the gulf. But approval documents also under- estimated the consequences. They expected, for example, that a big blowout would result in a slick around the accident site, but that between cleanup efforts and natural “weathering” of the oil, the released crude would pose little danger to coasts. As the council released its report, the Interior Department announced that it would update its
The approval process for drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf
President Obama obviously thought it necessary to share his knowledge of constitutional law with us on the issue of building a mosque near Ground Zero. Why, then, did he not at the same time give us the benefit of his personal caveat to “not com- ment on the wisdom” of that action [“Mosque stance gets an asterisk,” front page, Aug. 15]? White House assurances to the contrary, this after- thought clearly smacks of backtracking and find- ing an extrication loophole in the face of fierce public backlash. The president cannot have it both ways. His pro- viso implies that he may harbor doubts about the enterprise himself. Or is that a political cover? Transparency of motive and personal feelings in this instance would enhance the public perception of the president’s integrity and attention to Amer- icans’ emotional concerns. BERNARD G. ELLIKER, Laurel
The First Amendment is a pesky thing. It per- mits the Cordoba Initiative to build a Muslim com- munity center near Ground Zero in Lower Manhat- tan, and it allows Glenn Beck to speak at the Na- tional Mall on the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Anything that so exasperates the entire political
spectrum can’t be all bad. JOSEPH CHIANESE, Oakland, Calif.
It may be, as The Post asserted [“Calling George
W. Bush,” editorial, Aug. 19], that while a number of Muslims around the world support terrorists acts, “many more” reject jihadist thinking and see Islam as a “fundamentally peaceful religion.” But I do not find in the pages of the newspaper, which I read daily, reports of the latter group forcefully at- tacking jihadist views or publicly opposing the holders of them. Post op-ed columnist Charles Krauthammer, commentator Aaron David Miller, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York and many others, have it right: Non-Muslims’ understanding of free- dom of religion impels us to do the right thing by the Muslim community. But its members also un- derstand the difference between the right thing and the wise one. Of course, build the mosque. But not there.
JEROME ZUKOSKY, Annapolis
SOURCE: R CE Report R t Regard dini g the Minerals Management Serl M th Mi t S ivice’s N’ N ti ational El E invironmental Policy Act P t l P li A t P liolicies, Pi P tiractices, and Procedures as They Relate d P d to Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Exploration and Development by the White House Council on Environmental Quality Th R l t
Regarding Kyle Garton’s Aug. 17 letter “False perceptions on Ground Zero”: Though supportive of the mosque, he inad-
assessment of deepwater drilling’s risks and in- sist on environmental review for all deep-water drilling applications for now. Congress also should give Interior more time to assess explo- ration plans so that regulators can complete meaningful environmental reviews. With these policies in place, regulators might more often require changes in drilling proposals to guard against accidents. It’s also necessary to monitor drilling opera- tions properly after permits are granted, an is- sue that was arguably a bigger problem in the
Deepwater Horizon case than the project’s permitting. It is even more important to remember that
even the best regulatory regime won’t be per- fect, so Congress should sharpen the economic incentives for oil companies to drill responsibly. A thorough reform of offshore drilling reg- ulation should wait until investigations are fin- ished, but lawmakers needn’t wait to lift the cap on the liability that drillers face in an accident. The law should make clear that companies will have to pay for damage they cause.
vertently hit the nail on the head for those who op- pose it. He asked perhaps rhetorically, “Would the mosque’s opponents also object to building an avi- ation museum at a similar location, since airplanes were used in the Sept. 11 attacks?” Absolutely I would. Would not a museum to fly- ing be somewhat insensitive in a location where planes were used to kill 3,000 Americans? Isn’t that the point?
JIM TROY, Rockville Room at the top President Obama and the Senate should get moving on a leader for the Office of Legal Counsel. T
HE OFFICE of Legal Counsel (OLC) has been referred to as the conscience of the Justice Department. But it is more than that: The relatively small, relatively ob-
scure office wields enormous power far beyond the halls of Justice by issuing binding opinions that articulate the legal views of the executive. The office has been led by legal luminaries such as Republican Theodore Olson and Democrat Walter Dellinger. Yet for the past six years, the office has operat- ed without a confirmed chief. The last assistant attorney general for OLC to serve with the Sen- ate’s blessing was Jack L. Goldsmith III, a Bush appointee who left in 2004. Democrats blocked
a vote on President Bush’s next nominee; Re- publicans then returned the favor, blocking Dawn E. Johnsen, President Obama’s nominee. Ms. Johnsen withdrew from consideration this year when it became apparent that she would not be given the courtesy of a floor vote. It did not help matters that the White House failed to fully back the well-qualified Indiana law profes- sor. Now, the deputies who led the office in the ab- sence of a confirmed head are leaving for other jobs. David Barron, who was acting OLC chief, has returned to Harvard Law School; Martin S. Lederman, the other senior deputy, will soon be returning to Georgetown Law School. The ad-
ministration has yet to nominate a new chief. By most accounts, the office has been func- tioning well despite the lack of formal leader- ship, which is testament to the caliber of law- yers, including civil servants, who have long populated the office. But the vacuum at the top is unacceptable. Presidents have a right to see people of their choice in important executive branch positions. A president’s pick should be rejected only if deemed unqualified or guilty of a serious ethical or legal lapse. Mr. Obama should promptly pick someone to
manage this vital office, and his nominee should be given thorough and speedy consideration, in- cluding a full up-and-down vote.
I smiled when I read that the Islamic center near Ground Zero was to be modeled after the 92nd Street Y [“To N.Y. Muslims, more than a mosque,” news story, Aug. 19], but I was disappointed that the complete identity of the 92nd Street Y was not revealed: It is not a YMCA, it is a YM-YWHA, and the H stands for Hebrew. Perhaps someday the Park51 site will simply be called Cordoba, and people around the country will assume it was created by Spaniards. CANDACEDANAHER, Springfield
Post reporters Felicia Sonmez and Matt DeLong [“Democrats and GOP spar over Manhattan mosque,” news story, Aug. 16] and Post colum- nistMichael Gerson [“Obama’s mosque duty,” op- ed, Aug. 15] did not consider a possible egalitarian solution to this contretemps. If the mosque near Ground Zero, the site where
Islamic religious zealots, most of them from Saudi Arabia, murdered so many innocent people, is in- tended to be a gesture of reconciliation, then also fitting is placing a non-Islamic house of worship in Mecca to accommodate followers of other faiths. To accentuate the reconciliation, the two struc- tures should open simultaneously. When this profoundly symbolic event occurs, the real news on that day will be that it is snowing in hell.
JIM ROBERTS, Alexandria Legacy of a ‘terror baby’ Regarding the Aug. 16 editorial “The birthright
For Illinois’s sake, Rod Blagojevich must be tried again TAKING EXCEPTION
That former Illinois governor Rod Blagojev- ich was convicted of just one felony charge this week was a shock for many Illinoisans. Those of us who have suffered under the gridlock and ne- glect that typified the Blagojevich administra- tion, who knew firsthand what sort of governor he was, expected a more thorough outcome. But to act as if a deadlocked jury, with a lone holdout on the most serious charges against Blagojevich, should be tantamount to a full-bore acquittal is wrong and dangerous [“No second chances,” editorial, Aug. 19]. The case should be tried again. The Illinois Senate convicted Mr. Blagojevich of corrupt activity. He can never hold public of- fice in Illinois again. Yet he has not expressed contrition for his abuses of public trust. On the
contrary, he has loudly portrayed himself as the victim, denying any role in any improper activ- ity. His continued actions only encourage the next public official who thinks of feathering his or her own nest at public expense. The U.S. at- torney must finish the job. The people of Illinois deserve to know what went wrong. The political class needs to see what happens to officials, elected and other- wise, who abuse public office for private gain. For that to happen, and for justice to be served, Rod Blagojevich must be tried again. CYNTHIA CANARY, Chicago
The writer is executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. She testified at the Illinois House impeachment hearing of Rod Blagojevich.
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debate”: My story goes one step beyond “anchor babies.” I am an American citizen because of a “terror baby.” My grandfather, a wanted IRA fugitive, slipped out of Northern Ireland with my grandmother and came into the United States through Canada. My father, their son, became an airline pilot. I will soon be teaching secondary-school English. Hardly the home-grown terrorists we might have become. If the 14th Amendment gets repealed, will the re-
peal be retroactive? And if so, how far back in each American’s family tree will we go, and what degree of proof will be necessary to see that all potential se- curity “threats,” like those in my family, are properly disposed of?
EILEENNELSON, Clifton d
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