Carrots in the Middle East

Bush took the initiative in the war for Islam's hearts and minds by meeting with Prime Minister Abbas of Palestine today in Washington. Bush earmarked $50 million in foreign aid to build houses and other projects in the Gaza Strip, where the space opened up by the vacation of land-greedy Israeli settlements will probably spark an enormous building boom. This is part of a $350 million package, most of which will go to non-governmental organizations.

On the Persian front, the U.S. for the first time, declined to block membership negotiations for Iran's application to the WTO. Membership in the WTO has been dangled as a carrot in front of Iran, and, as the CS Monitor points out, the Bush administration is taking an important step by working synergistically with our European allies. Approaching this as a team with the Europeans prevents the Iranians from playing one of us off the other, and offers the U.S. the chance of better results whether Iran cooperates or not. If Iran does cooperate, we'll have a full share of the economic benefits of whatever deals are struck, and if no deal is struck, we'll have the public relations victory of looking sane and non-extreme, while the Iranian government will appear as the radical in the room.

Sources: Al-Jazeera, Bloomberg, and Business Week.