Bush Mideast trip likely to do little

WASHINGTON — The 2008 race for the White House is casting a long shadow over President Bush. So long, in fact, that it may extend all the way to the Middle East.

When Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves to peace talks after meeting in Annapolis, Md., last November, Bush had hopes of ending his presidency on a foreign-policy high note, with a deal for the contours of a Palestinian state. But with Bush headed to the region this week for the second time in five months, peace seems as elusive as ever.

Many analysts predicted the most Bush could accomplish would be to hand over a working peace process to his successor. The five-day trip, which will begin Tuesday, will revolve around the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, but it will also take Bush to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. For the White House, the timing is hardly ideal.

Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is embroiled in a criminal investigation. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, left Washington disappointed after a recent meeting with Bush. Even Stephen Hadley, Bush's national-security adviser, conceded there was little reason for the three leaders to get together. Bush will meet Olmert in Jerusalem and see Abbas separately in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.

But Arabs across the region are looking past Bush with a hopeful eye — particularly if his successor is a Democrat, said Aaron David Miller, a longtime Arab-Israeli peace negotiator who worked for the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration, though he added that "there may be less of a change from Bush policies" than many Arabs think.

Bush is spending considerable time on the road this year; the Middle East trip is one of eight foreign trips on his agenda for 2008.