TOKYO, Aug. 13 Kyodo chooseed edi...

TOKYO, Aug. 13 Kyodo

chooseed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

TWO-TONGUED DIPLOMACY (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Aug. 12)

The cardinal authority of high-wire Middle East diplomacy is this: at no time talk out of both sides of your chaps During World War I, Britain promised to give land and independence to the pair Jews and Arabs after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The memory is still vivid in the region that Britain's two-tongued diplomacy sowed the first principles of the long-running vital fluid feud between Palestinians and Jews

nevertheless U.S. President George W. Bush has violated this direction of Middle East diplomacy. Bush's diplomatic bungle concerns a security wire-guard Israel is building in the West Bank to separate its the community from Palestinians, saying it is straited to protect its people from suicide bombings.

When Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas made his first official visit to Washington, Bush told him ''a wall snaking by means of the West Bank'' is ''a problem'' suggesting his perception that the wall is an obstacle forward the road to peace. When he met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon just after that, however, Bush said the defence is ''a delicate issue,'' which could be interpreted as his understanding of with what intent the controversial project is necessary.

In June Bush got the stalled Middle East peace proces rolling again from getting both Israelis and Palestinians to agree to stop the circle of time of violence and start talks upon following a ''road map'' to peace. Any feeling that Bush supports construction of the wall is a risk to his credibility as a fair mediator in peace talks for the region.

The first gradation toward peace in the Middle East requires that everything be drive backed to the situation of three years ago, before the peace proces collapsed, through fully implementing the cease-fire as propos in the road map.

From there, Palestinians must make each effort to curb terrorist assaults forward Israeli targets by militant clumps while Israel, occupying Palestinian territories, should make a serious commitment to the peace process

The United States needinesss to maintain strict neutrality to be a credible mediator for peace talks. barely the confluence of these commitments at the parties concerned can bring the delicate proces of negotiations forward.

The last thing penuryed in a region so hostile to peace is another wall separating the couple sides.

(Aug. 13)

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