Posted on 05/30/2007 10:12:40 AM PDT by APRPEH
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cautioned against a growing sentiment in Israel to pursue peace with Syria instead of with warring Palestinian factions, saying there is "no substitute" for creating a Palestinian state, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, according to the report, Prime Minister Olmert has frustrated US officials by seeming to be increasingly indecisive.
Rice will discuss the stalled peace process with diplomats in Washington on Wednesday, but with violence erupting between Palestinian factions - and with Israel under constant attack from rockets launched from the Gaza Strip - Rice has faced criticism from some outside experts for spending so much time on a diplomatic long shot, rather than seeking to quickly end the violence.
Israeli officials, who have confirmed Israeli news media reports that there is intense discussion about whether to pursue a peace agreement with Syria, are doubtful that Rice's efforts will amount to much and are concerned that putting the Palestinian track on hold will increase anger and resentment in the Palestinian areas.
The Palestinian issue "is at the core of a lot of problems in the region," Rice told the Post. She said, "There is no substitute for trying to get to the place where the Palestinians finally have their state and the Israelis finally have a neighbor who can live in peace and security with them."
The "Israeli-Palestinian track is extremely important" because it "unlocks the key" to "further engagement between the Arabs and the Israelis," Rice said.
no matter what kind of witchcraft this puffed rice fries up, it is not her nor FoggyBottom's perogative to order another soverign country to pursue a particular policy.
I presume, although possibly wrongly, that she, Bush and State know there is a Pali civil war underway and that Syria is blustering for a conflict. One has to wonder what lame duck means in the minds of these anointed fopo experts?
make that a “sovereign” country
We “order” sovereign countries all the time to follow a particular policy. Don’t be so naive. We just told Iraqi legislators not to take such long summer vacations.
We did elect conservatives right? Some days I get confused.
Iraq is a ‘sovereign’ country? since when?
Israel made this bed by trying, for the last 16 years, to make peace with the arab terrorists of Judea and Samaria (the “west bank”) and Gaza. The Bush administration initially was extremely negative to Prime Minister Sharon’s strategy of unilaterally pulling Israeli troops out of Gaza and destroying the Samarian Jewish villages of Homesh and Sa-Nur.
Still, it seems irrefutable that Secretary Rice, rather than helping Israel, has decided to sacrifice Israel on the altar of international Islamic unity.
The only saving grace to this is that her boss, President Bush, is nearly as weak politically as Prime Minister Olmert, the arab terrorist organizations (primarily Fatah and Hamas and their affiliates) are fighting one-another tooth and nail and none of the terrorist groups has shown serious interest in a meaningful political dialogue with Israel, thereby keeping Secretary Rice’s pipe dreams entirely within the realm of delusion.
It’s sad to see intelligent people like her blow themselves up.
Dr. Rice - Always on the side of the terrorists and the slavers.
What an idiotic comment.
Olmert et al are idiots. Peace with Syria? Ridiculous. If they give the Golan Heights back Northern Israel, the most fertile part, will make Sderot look live a vacation paradise.
Doesn’t she know that the Palestinian state that they want covers Israel from river to sea?
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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I posted many times in the past about 'leeza and was roundly beaten.
Ha ha ha...
FMCDH(BITS)
The important question isn’t whether we pressure governments, we do all the time, rather why the Bush administration has determined that a palestinian state is a necessity by the time he leaves office, I believe he described it as a cornerstone of his foreign policy.
While correct, the problem is the Palestinians appear to have not desire to do this. First there is no single group to call the "Palestinians" and second, the command structure that IS there won't stop shelling Israel long enough to assure us how much they want peace.
Fixed it.
K, good point. I think he promised the Saudis and the EU that he would help set one up.
This is the accepted wisdom over at State, but it is not only wrong it is 180 degrees wrong.
There will never be an independent arab West Bank and there will never be an independent Gaza. It will never happen.
The arab West Bank is not viable as an independent state, and wishing it were so will not make it so. Separate from Israel, separate from Jordan, where are its markets? Where is its industry? What is the basis of its economy?
It is doomed to be what it is, an outlaw enclave ruled by outlaws and populated by people who have consented to be ruled by outlaws. They are complicit in their own misery. Anyone foolish enough to invest there in any productive enterprise has already lost his investment, and won't be back. The enclave lives by US/UN/EU subsidies, which fund its terror movements which are its real and only economic good.
Time wasted pursuing the fantasy of a sovereign west bank is just time wasted, which in that part of the world translates directly into dead Israeli innocents and dead deluded arabs.
Gaza, which at least has a coastline, could be the Monaco of the eastern Med if it was populated by almost anyone other than arabs. But Gazans are not Frenchmen, and it will never be able to stand alone.
If these territories are to remain arab, they need to be returned to their mother countries, Jordan and Egypt. Neither one wants them, it should be noted. Alternatively, they could be cleared and annexed, which Israel does not want to do, which would only be the result of open warfare. The status quo guarantees continuous low-level warfare. Continuous low-level warfare is what "peace in the middle east" looks like. Get used to it.
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