To the Point

The Future of the Middle East Road Map

President Bush says he-ll work as hard for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as Tony Blair worked to make peace in Northern Ireland. Will he risk confronting America-s Jewish lobby and the Christian right? That-s what it might take to get Israel to implement Bush-s so-called -road map,- presuming the Palestinians push Yasser Arafat out of the way. The three-phase plan for establishing a Palestinian state was devised by the UN, European Union, Russia and the United States, known collectively as -the Quartet.- President Bush says he-ll release it as soon as soon as the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister and his cabinet take office. We get an update on progress toward peace in the Middle East from journalists in Israel and Jordan, and former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk. Making News: Weapons of Mass Destruction Inspections Russia, France and other Security Council members have thrown cold water on President Bush-s proposal that economic sanctions against Iraq be lifted. Some also want UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq. In today-s Wall Street Journal, John Fialka reports that the Bush administration is preparing its own team of scientists, intelligence analysts and military experts. Fialka says some see Blix as a "diplomatic appeaser." Reporter-s Notebook: Professional Art Thieves at Work in Iraq? Curators at the Baghdad Museum report that armed American soldiers stood by while looters stole some of the world-s most valuable archeological relics. Now, there are reasons to think that the looters were not random vandals, but knew exactly what they were doing. Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor and Ed Keall, curator of Near Eastern and Asian art at Toronto-s Royal Ontario Museum pick up the story.