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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Georgia;font-weight:bold'>July 22, 2006<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color="#666666" face=Georgia><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:bold'>Op-Ed Contributor<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:21.5pt;font-family:
Georgia'>Meet Your Enemies <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Georgia;font-weight:bold'>By ROBERT MALLEY<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on"><font size=3
face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia'>Washington</span></font></st1:State></st1:place><font
face=Georgia><span style='font-family:Georgia'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>THE <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region></st1:place> must rekindle the kind of diplomatic
activity that befits its status and furthers its interests. Of the six players
most directly involved in the confrontation — <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>,
Hezbollah, <st1:City w:st="on">Hamas</st1:City>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region>,
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iran</st1:country-region></st1:place>
and the elected Palestinian government — the only one with which we talk
is the one with which we agree. As a result, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region></st1:place>, facing one of the
more severe crises in decades, has been missing in action. Watching the United
Nations from the sidelines, it has subcontracted diplomacy in a region it deems
vital to a party it doesn’t trust. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>American diplomacy should focus on immediate reciprocal
and verifiable cease-fires, prisoner swaps, preliminary steps toward
Hezbollah’s demilitarization and, on the Palestinian side, allowing the
Hamas government to govern by easing the financial boycott. This cannot work
without engaging <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region> and <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iran</st1:country-region></st1:place>
and renewing efforts to establish a comprehensive peace. None of this will be
easy or tidy. But it is certainly preferable to a policy that in one breath
tells innocent civilians that our thoughts are with them, and in another that
the time for a cease-fire has not yet come. Our thoughts they can do without.
It’s action they need.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:18.0pt'><font size=3 face=Georgia><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Georgia'>— <span class=italic>ROBERT MALLEY</span>, <span
class=italic>the director of the Middle East Program at the International
Crisis Group</span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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