Do over in the Mideast

Forget three major wars.

Forget 60 years of Arab terrorism against Israel.

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President Bush has declared a do-over.

It's back to the beginning. For Israel, he has declared, it's back to 1949 and borders that were indefensible then and even more indefensible today.

We're supposed to believe that if we wipe the slate clean, creating a new Palestinian Arab state where previously none existed, we will have peace in our time.

We're supposed to ignore the fact that these Palestinian Arabs have not yet abided by a single requirement of previous agreements designed to achieve peace.

We're supposed to forget that Israel is still surrounded by a sea of hostile nations, most of which have never ended their state of war with the Jewish state.

We're supposed to think that appeasement of Jew-hating, Islamic terrorism will work – even though appeasement of tyranny has never worked in the history of the world.

We're supposed to accept that betrayal of the one nation in the Middle East that has actively striven for peace and established freedom for its citizens is in the best interests of the United States and the world.

That's what we're supposed to take away from President Bush's precedent-setting statement last week that the United States would accept no deviation from the 1949 armistice lines as future borders for Israel without Palestinian Authority approval.

Bush has become an advocate for the Arabs at the expense of the Israelis.

In effect, he has become the best bargaining chip the terrorists of the Middle East have ever had.

Bush has upped the ante from previous demands by the Palestinian Authority. Until last week, the Palestinians had been demanding a return to pre-1967 borders. Now Bush has raised the stakes.

If there were any doubts about what Bush meant, he went even further, re-emphasizing his support for the creation of a Palestinian state.

"A state of scattered territories will not work," he said. "There must also be meaningful linkages between the West Bank and Gaza."

While the idea of linkages between territories sounds reasonable to those not familiar with the geography of the Middle East, Israelis understand it can mean only one thing – cutting Israel in half.

Either Israel's territory, currently about the size of the state of New Jersey, would have to be reduced by 50 percent, or, Israel itself would be divided without meaningful linkages.

The new position by Bush is a stark contrast to a commitment he gave to Sharon in April 2004 – one that gave the Israeli leader the confidence he needed to embark on the risky, unpopular move of uprooting peaceful Jewish families and businesses from the their property in the Gaza Strip.

In a letter of support to Sharon 14 months ago, Bush wrote: "It is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final-status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949."

Understandably, Sharon interpreted the letter as a promise that major Jewish communities in the West Bank would not have to be destroyed and uprooted in any final deal.

Sharon had used that American promise to counter domestic criticism of his withdrawal plan. But President Bush's latest statements from the White House indicate that the final status of those other Jewish communities is predetermined.

In other words, Bush's comments – and his radically new policy position on the Middle East – completely undercut Sharon's justification for unilateral withdrawal.

Sharon no longer has any bargaining position because it is no longer a question of what Israel is willing to give up in exchange for peace. Instead, it is a question of what Abbas will allow Israel keep.

What would a return to the 1949 armistice lines mean?

• The Western Wall was in Arab hands in 1949.

• The Temple Mount was in Arab hands in 1949.

• Eastern Jerusalem was in the hands of Arabs in 1949.

This is the new reality which Sharon and the Israelis must accept, according to Bush – starting over with the indefensible borders the new Jewish state inherited, indefensible borders that led to three major wars and 56 years of unrelenting terrorism from its neighbors.

It's a do-over.

Israel gets to make all of the sacrifices it made to survive all over again. It gets to hope and pray that God delivers the Jewish state to miraculous victories once again. It gets to do all this without a single friend it can count on in the whole world – not even the United States this time around.