Posted on 08/01/2005 5:16:38 AM PDT by SJackson
In praising Mahmoud Abbas, Condoleezza Rice showed how little she understands the Palestinian Authority
Condoleezza Rice rushed to Jerusalem and Ramallah on what she is likely to have imagined as a rescue mission for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. If that was truly her motive, she need not have bothered. Ariel Sharon has mainstream Israel solidly behind him, and a parliamentary majority has voted for withdrawal no less than four times. Sharon long ago determined that Gaza was a dead end for the country, what with the particularly daunting demographic ratio (1.3 million Arabs to 9,000 Jews, this number itself being the biggest failure of the settler movement) and the human price the army would have to pay to defend an agrarian idyll that some confused with biblical prophecy and national destiny. Israel would depart whatever the circumstances.
Still, even if the reason for her panic was misplaced, Rice's sudden presence was certainly needed if only to prop up the designated receiving end of the disengagement equation. After all, Palestinians were shooting one another on the streets of Gaza, where Hamas has staggering gun-toting superiority. But it is doubtful that her coyly supportive appearance in the Muqata, Yasir Arafat's old haunts far from the historic squalor of the Strip, will do the trick for Mahmoud Abbas for long.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Plain and simple, she's a diplomat.
Note you don't see Rummy being sent there to try and straigten thigs out there.
She most likely understands much more than the author does.
Criticism is good.
I like Marty. He's interesting and he tries to be honest, even at times when I disagree with him.
But let's make sure that we complete the picture. After the 2004 election, he basically said something to the effect that his grandmother would have been shamed had he voted with Bush (being an evil Republican, because all of them are), even if he agreed only on security matters. I am sorry for him.
Marty has pointed out valid concerns with the Secretary of State in dealing with the PA. I agree with these observations, but wonder why Marty isn't also trying to stem the tide within his own party?
If the answer is what I think it is, I feel even sorrier for him. Because what I come up with is that he believes he has a better chance of finding support among R's than D's.
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
Not that he's going to say it outloud, there are those who think the solution to the Gaza problem is to move ALL the people out ~ they frequently refer to Egypt as the place for them to go.
That's the other side of the "drive'em into the sea" position taken by so many in the PA.
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