Posted on 02/02/2005 7:12:36 AM PST by Sunshine55
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday held out the possibility of U.S. support to train and equip Palestinian forces as she seeks to promote Middle East peace on a visit to the region next week.
Making her first trip abroad as secretary of state, Rice will meet Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Monday to try to capitalize on what Washington sees as a new chance for peace after Yasser Arafat's death.
The disputed shooting of a Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip on Monday illustrated the fragility of the relative calm since the Palestinian icon died and triggered mortar fire by Arab militants on a nearby Jewish settlement.
Rice said Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had demonstrated the will to clamp down on violence by quickly deploying security forces in the Gaza Strip, where militant groups have adopted a tacit truce.
"It's not perfect, but they have made some progress" on getting control of the disparate Palestinian security forces and on cracking down on violence against Israelis, Rice told Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
"Obviously the Palestinians are going to need help in terms of training and equipping their new security forces and I am sure that there will be ways that we might be involved in that," she said.
Rice suggested Washington could also help the Palestinians develop democratic institutions and, eventually, support reconstruction if Israel carries through with its plan to close all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank.
"What I hope to do when I go there is to try and sustain -- help to sustain -- the momentum that they (the Israelis and Palestinians) have clearly developed over the last several weeks," she added.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
And maybe you missed the memo that you are ever so close to blasphemy.
If the Palestinians can have a 'peace' with Israel for a period of 5 years, then we can start suggesting help. Otherwise, this is all a bunch of hot air...
I should think that any friend of Israel would welcome saving the lives of Israeli innocents by stabilizing its enemies.
Of course. I was wondering how long it would be before someone dragged that one out again. Is there no other weapon left in the Bushbot arsenal than to say the other guy would be worse?
She is referring to NEW security forces, as in the security forces in the newly democratic Iraq.
OK, so why in hell would be be arming ANY Palestinians? Can you tell me that?
Oh.. wait, here's something I cleared up at the end of the article, wow this is something:
(ATTN BUSH LEGIONS: Go forth to proclaim the good word of Lord Bush! Deflect any criticism of this news as heresy against the Blessed President and unpatriotic! Twist logic and words... Obfuscate... Change issues... Remember, do all and say all in defense of the Exalted Ruler Bush and all that is his whim! Hail Bush...)
So those are your operating orders. Explains a lot...
He is no different. If there is a lull in the fighting, it just means they are taking time to regroup. The war will go on as usual. I wish I could be more positive than that, but I can't.
It's true, blasphemy or not.
There is a world of difference between stabilizing its enemies and enabling their enemies.
It's naivete to believe they want to live peacefully with Jews.
I hope you're right, as obscene I think it is to even voice such a foolish notion.
Not much to worry about here. I think the idea is that the PAL troops will be used to contain the Palestinian population. I'm sure they will not be trained to anywhere near the level of Israeli troops.
Everything should be OK, until Israel decides it needs some more land.
As to the statement.....which I have repeatedly asked you to read without bias......there is no statement of time involved. Unless you believe that all Palestinians are evil for all time, you cannot say there is no circumstance under which they can be safely armed (as the Iraqis presently are), ever in the future.
And with your final paragraph, you ARE blaspheming, and revealing your own personal weakness.
There is no point in trying to rationally discuss a subject with one as irrational as you clearly are, so consider this conversation over.
Is this accurate? Surely, she could not have countenanced such a radical policy!
I am not saying that the Palestinians will ever be friends with the Israelis, but I do not believe they are without redemption, as some do here.
I forgot we are forbidden from expressing any opinion that seems too similar to Bush's. We need to appear "fair and balanced" so we don't seem to be right-wing zealots.
Grow up - just because you disagree and Bush agrees doesn't mean I'm a Bushbot any more than you disagreeing with the administration make you a Deaniac.
May I turn that around to say that it is also naivete to believe that the Palestinian people, living under an evil dictator, have actually all voiced what they really want, and that we know what that is?
Continuing the parallel with Iraq..........did we know what the Iraqi people 'wanted' before Saddam was gone? Sunday we found out, and it was not at all what most people thought.
I'd arm them with nerf-bats.
Right. Let's get all the Jews out of the West Bank and Gaza and arm the Palis in case any of those uppity Jews try to get back in. Great plan.
It is not that they are without redemption, it is that a significant portion of their numbers want all of the land that is Israel. They have said it openly and to ignore it is suicide.
There may be peace one day, but not without much more turmoil and death. And, probably not in my lifetime. No US administration has been able to broker a deal. Not Nixon's, Reagan's, Clinton's or will Bush. Rice's announcements exacerbate things, not help.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.