You can turn to Al Jazeera to give you the Arab reactions to President Bush's Middle East peace initiative: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/88D0079D-658D-40F3-AB3B-BD0555F526A1.htm In essence, papers in countries that like us (Kuwait), are supportive of the president's attempts to find a peace solution before he leaves office, while others that are mixed in their attitudes generally (Egypt) are mixed about this trip, too, and the hostile ones are hostile (Palestine). It is the latter, Palestine, that matter most.
If, as the Palestinians quoted by Al Jazeera declare, there can be no peace without Israel recognizing "the right of return" to properties that the Palestinians' parents and grandparents left sixty years ago, there is not going to be any peace. Israel is not going to commit suicide.
Nonetheless, nearly every American president eventually seems to fall into the trap of thinking that somehow he can broker the great, elusive Israeli-Palestinian deal. Actually, the deal is there and waiting. All it takes is for the Palestinians to agree to it. Its benefits includes huge amounts of foreign aid and investment (from us, primarily) and huge opportunities for mutual trade and business partnerships (with Israel, mainly), and probably some big financial and security incentives from nearby Arab states that want to move on from the barren struggles of the past. The real sticking point is ending violent attacks on Israel. The PA has to sign a real peace treaty and enforce it--on its side, where the violations are wont to occur.
Right now the atmosphere for an Israeli-Palestinian peace should be promising on the international level. The rich Saudis and Gulf Arabs are worried about Iran and have no love for Iran's surrogates in the Levant, notably Hezzbolah and Hamas. Meanwhile, Iraq is turning into a U.S. success and the new Iraqi government is simply not interested in resuming Iraq's previous active opposition to Israel.
If the Fatah government of the Palestine Authority and the Palestinian people can see their way to a mutually acceptable peace settlement with Israel, Hamas can be discredited and its grasp on Gaza loosened. There will be an obvious comparison to be made when Gazans see how their grim lives under perpetual entifadah compare with the blessings that quickly will accompany any genuine peace between the PA and Israel.
But the "right of return" demand is just code for "never!" If the PA and its constituency can't get past that demand now, and rather clearly, you can shut down the talks tomorrow.
I have been to the West Bank, as well as to Israel, several times in the my life, most recently last summer. My first experience was crossing the "Green Line" in 1965 and walking through the "Mandelbaum Gate" that separated Jerusalem before the '67 War. In the 80s I visited schools and community centers and technical training programs in Ramalah and Gaza. As a result, I really long to see Palestinians lead lives of dignity, freedom and prosperity.
But sacrificing Israel, ironically, would do nothing to achieve such a future. Perverse as it may seem to some, the Palestinians need peace with Israel even more than Israel needs peace with the Palestinians. Under the right political conditions, the Palestinians can be enormously successful, as communities of Palestinians have shown in Jordan and elsewhere. Palestinians have their cultural hang-ups but they have more human capital than almost any other Arabs. Collaborating with the dynamic Israelis, rather than combating them, they could excel in every way.
President Bush is a fine international leader--though he is widely maligned--and his diplomacy in the Middle East is consistently underrated. History will be kinder to him than his contemporaries, as often is the case. But in his final year in office he should not allow himself to be pushed into pushing Israel. That would just set up the next failure.
A bright future is ready for the Palestinians. But only they can decide if they are ready for it.