A Palestinian state already exists. It is called Jordan. The vast Arab territories possess plenty of lands to set up housekeeping for the Palestinians - if the Arab regimes possessed the matching moxie (a moxie they demand of Israel) to relocate the Palestinians on those lands, and thereby to resolve the Palestinian "problem." But the Arab regimes neither offer nor provide such a solution because they prefer the Palestinians where they are - at the point of the spear and strapping on suicide bombs in their abiding war to eradicate Israel, and Jews, from the face of the Earth.
Despite prattling to the contrary by the too-long-Arabist State Department, surely President Bush understands these things. Surely he understands the impossibility of success without working crucial changes in Arab attitudes. Surely he understands that the Palestinians, with Comrade Arafat still the puppeteer, are the Arabs' terror arm against Israel. Surely he understands that there can be no freedom without security, and that Israel cannot yield anything that compromises its security without compromising the liberty of its people.
Will the road map lead to an Israel dwelling side by side with a sovereign, peace loving Palestine by 2005? Not likely. Over the years, the Israelis have demonstrated repeated willingness to compromise on everything except the one thing on which they cannot - their own security - while the Arabs have compromised on hardly anything at all.
Unless the Arabs genuinely compromise as military losers customarily are required to do, we are far more likely to have an Israel more extensively walled off - fenced - against Palestinian incursion, because the Arabs will have left the Israelis no alternative route to at least a semblance of security.
Unless the Arabs relent on borders and settlements and right of return - and bring the Palestinians (and Palestinian terror) to heel - by 2005 the road map probably will have proved little more than a guide into yet another dead-end posted with a sign reading, "No Way Out."