Zalmay's Middle East Fumble Turtle Bay

NY Sun ^ | 12/3/07 | BENNY AVNI

[dervish]

Hailed as the cure for ill will toward Washington and other diplomatic problems at the United Nations, the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, was taken down a peg over the weekend, as his own — and his country's — prestige were thrown into question. What will one of President Bush's favorite operators do now? Mr. Khalilzad sold to the 15 members of the Security Council a resolution in support of the Palestinian Arab-Israeli negotiations at Annapolis. But he acted like a star quarterback who botched the signals, ran ahead with the football, got the backs and coaches all confused, and ended up with a big fat fumble for American diplomacy.

At the same time, last week's lunch with financier George Soros at the tony restaurant of choice for U.N. dignitaries, L'Impero in Tudor City, raised concerns among Mr. Bush's partisan loyalists — some of whom tell me Mr. Khalilzad may be looking for inroads into a future Clinton administration or a future appointment to a top U.N. position after the end of the Bush presidency — or even before.

Mr. Khalilzad may merely be interested in Mr. Soros's Open Society operations in countries that are, as he often says, "of interest" to America.

'snip'

Mr. Khalilzad has a talent for making inroads with America's enemies, which may have made for strange lunch meetings even before Mr. Soros. A former top U.N. inside operator largely considered a foe by Washington, Pakistan's Iqbal Riza, was the first man Mr. Khalilzad had for lunch as he moved into the official ambassador's residence at the Waldorf-Astoria in April.

[dervish]

also see It turns out that Khalilzad may have one or two agendas of his own. Last Tuesday, American eyebrows hit the roof when Fox News discovered US Ambassador Khalilzad having lunch with George Soros, the billionaire anti-Bush activist and funder of Moveon.org. As Fox observed, on the surface the two of them would appear to have had little to talk about.

Strange how Soros keeps popping up in this kind of context — he is of course a close associate of Britain’s controversial minister for the UN Lord Malloch Brown, whose peculiar appointment to the British government no-one has yet been able to explain.

'snip'

Khalizad has also mentioned his close friendship with former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi . But Brahami has repeatedly expressed his hostility to Israel and has been reported as boasting that he was proud

never to have knowingly shaken the hand of an Israeli or a Jew.

Just like the Saudis at Annapolis – the subject of Ambassador Khalilzad’s attempted UN demarche. Well there's a coincidence.

The Spectator

[Shermy]

The “fumble” is thinking the Arab governments care about the Palestinians any more. They can view on Al Jazeera how Hamas slaughtered Fatah in Gaza blowing away the facade of Arab solidarity. They see how Hamas and and Syria, for money’s sake, have effectively dropped out of the Arab League and figuratively joined the Persian League.

The only thing less likely than these people following the lead of an American black female infidel foreign minister is submitting to the insane fantasies of Iranian Shiite leaders that all Muslims, including Sunni Arabs, should accord them leadership of the Muslim world, including the destruction of Israel.

Arabs don’t care anymore. Did thy raise a peep about Israel bombing Syria? Nope.