President Bush's trip to Israel next week will do nothing for the Arab-Israeli peace process and is in fact more similar to an existential Samuel Becket play, Middle East experts said this morning in a briefing.

"In some ways, this is the road show cast of 'Waiting for Godot,'" said Anthony Cordesman, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to reporters who will travel with the president to the Middle East.

"Basically you’re going out there with the president to basically set a marker while everybody waits for the next president," Cordesman said.

Jon Alterman, director of CSIS's Middle East program, was equally morose in his predictions for Bush's trip.

"It’s hard to remember a less auspicious time to pursue an Arab-Israeli peace agreement," Alterman said.

Bush is traveling to Jerusalem on Tuesday to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary, and will also try to push forward talks begun last fall in Annapolis to define the contours of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed last fall to reach an agreement by the end of Bush's time in office, but Alterman said that "a peace deal will not be concluded while President Bush is in office."

"Right now neither leader has the power to make peace," Alterman said.

In fact, Olmert "is in crisis ... and is perhaps days from being forced from office," Alterman said (read Josh Mitnick's piece in our paper today for more on that).

In fact, Alterman said that among Israelis there is "a real sense that this isn’t what it was supposed to be, that Israel’s 60th anniversary is a story of survival but not a story of triumph."

Many Israelis are thinking they "may remain in conflict for its entire existence as a state," Alterman said.

"There is this tone of sobriety which pervades a lot of discussions," he said.

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times