BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- In one month George W. Bush is to conclude his eight-year tenure as the president of the United States. Looking back, it is not difficult to see that President Bush has hardly realized his diplomatic ambitions in the Middle East during the time as a stalled peace process in 2008 remains as a poor example of his diplomatic policy.

    ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE: AN AMBITIOUS TARGET NEVER MET

    Last November, after seven years of inaction, the Bush administration brokered an international conference on the Middle East in Annapolis, Maryland, in order to kick-start the stalled process by getting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert committing to reaching a comprehensive peace agreement before the end of 2008.

    Recently, after months of insisting that an agreement could still be forged, the Bush administration has conceded that it will hand over the unfinished peace efforts to the upcoming president Barack Obama.

    This result comes as no surprise, though. Firstly, setting such an unpractical target itself reflected a lack of understanding by the Bush administration of the complexity and seriousness of the long-standing Mideast issue.

    With the conflicting interests of various groups and the two sides' poles-apart divarication over such core issues as demarcation, the status of Jerusalem, return of Palestinian refugees, the Jewish settlements, to find a peace plan acceptable to both sides is already hideously tough, and to strike a deal within one year is tantamount to a "mission impossible."

    During his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories as the U.S. president in January, Bush called for "painful concessions" from both sides to make peace, but stopped short of mentioning any concrete commitment Israel, the U.S. ally, is supposed to make, which once again fueled Palestinian doubts over the U.S. credibility as a peacemaker.

    Bush's choice of time to jump-start the Middle East peace process -- one year before the next presidential elections, a time of transition when everybody would wait and see instead of taking concrete actions, is another liability.

    Unstable political situation marked by the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and the failure of the new Kadima leader Tzipi Livni to form a cabinet in Israel, as well as the infighting between the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah, which resulted in an de facto separation between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, also contributed to paralyzing the peace talks.

    All in all, with a target unrealistic in the first place, bad timing and inappropriate means, as well as a lack of motivation among the Palestinian camps, the peace process stayed where it had started at the Annapolis meeting within this year.