[Vaquero]

Bibi for PM.

[Cinnamon Girl]

"All of Israel has been built, not because of the approval of the Arabs and the international community, but despite their opposition," Netanyahu told reporters atop a dusty hilltop. "We need the kind of leadership that would insist on this." Netanyahu said it was unjust that Ma'aleh Adumim's expansion was being prevented while illegal Arab building went unchecked. He called again for the Shas party to leave the government after Livni admitted on Channel 2 Friday night that Jerusalem's fate was in fact being negotiated, despite Olmert's claims to the contrary. "If the government continues, not only will Jerusalem be encircled by a ring of adversarial Arabs and eventually Hamas, Jerusalem itself will be divided," Netanyahu said. "My friends in Shas who say they want to save Jerusalem must leave the government immediately." A Shas spokesman said in response that they received reassurances from Livni that Jerusalem was not being negotiated and that if the opposite were true, the party would leave the government, the Post reported. Shas has been saying that for months, despite evidence to the contrary.

That's my Bibi. If only we could count on Bibi to follow through on his own rhetoric. He's right for calling out Shas. What is their deal?

[DoughtyOne]

Evidently Rumsfeld refered to Rice as a ‘glorified Russian studies graduate’ around the start of the WOT. I think the guy may have been on to something.

I watched a few minutes of the PBS special on the fifth anniversary of the war start, “Bush’s War”. (B.S. Title BTW). This tid-bit was mentioned in that short clip I viewed.

They seemed to be making the case that Iraq would have been ever so much easier if the State Department had run things instead of the Pentagon. The State Department is the political version of a bottomless swamp. No way!

If I am asked to choose who has Israel’s best interests at heart, Bibi or Condoleza, she’s in for a big letdown. I see Bibi in the front of the classroom with front row Condoleza stuffed into a little first graders desk.

Listen to the master Condoleza. He’s knows what he is talking about.

[fish hawk]

Of course! Condi will kiss the lefties ass and ignore the good guy hero. And to think, I was one of the idiots wanting for her to run for president. Well, I've grown up now.

[Retired Greyhound]

Of course I support BiBi...but if a foreign diplomat comes to the U.S. and meets with the minority party, that would be silly.

[Cicero]

Not much to be gained by meeting with her. Rice is a lame duck, and Bibi is an outsider until the people of Israel decide they’ve had enough of Olmert and his band of idiots.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

She’s going to feel very foolish if and when Bibi becomes PM again.

[montag813]

Condi Reich is such a creep. I can’t wait until Jan 20, 2009 for her departure.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

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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And here I was under the misconception that Rice and Cheney worked for the same administration.

[editor-surveyor]

As the Boosh admin continues to stab the country in the back...

[Guenevere]

Rice snubs Bibi...at your own peril Condi, and ours!

[Convert from ECUSA]

Condi snubs Bibi; Bibi tells it like it is - ping!

[savedbygrace]

Rice continues to be a failure as SoS. Can’t say she was much of a success as NSA before that.

Bush is destroying us with his Israel policies.

[CutePuppy]

Makes a lot of sense, and part of the divide-and-conquer-Palis policy.

Bibi is outside of government now, and there is nothing he can say to Condi / Bush that they don’t already know and agree with. The important part is to “hold the hand” and not to antagonize flaky and unpredictable Ehud Olmert until Bibi (or someone from conservative coalition) will take Olmert’s place. Meeting with Bibi simply would not serve any purpose at this time - nothing to be gained by us by meeting with him now, while Bibi might or might not benefit slightly from photo-op.

Saying “nice” things about one side (Abbas) of the “two ‘Palestinian’ states” (Gaza / Hamas and West Bank / Fatah) keeps the status quo of civil war going, which is making Israel far safer and ‘Palestinians’ divided and entirely leaderless and without any authority to do anything or “negotiate” anything until they “resolve their difference” and can speak in one voice. A much added benefit is a daily reminder and example of “true Palestiniant state” - the Hamas’ Gaza - which doesn’t even have support of UN or EU (imagine that!) and makes all talks about talks about more talks about “agreement” on status of ‘Palestine’ irrelevent and a joke, which everyone understands. Anything towards that “goal”, like farce in Annapolis or saying nice things about ‘Palestinian people’ who “earn for freedom” (not much different from the content of saying the same things about people of Eastern Europe during Cold War - freedom from their own regime and leadership) earns us points and bides the time and runs out the clock on feckless Olmert regime, while having no downside and making no waves politically, except by getting scorn on FR because it’s not “politically correct” position.

Politically, it may seem ugly (aren’t politics always this way?) from FReepers point of view; policy-wise it’s brilliant and doesn’t put any pressure on Israel to give up anything or even do anything, but “talk” and keep (paraphrasing Seinfeld) “talking about nothing with a nobody”.

In the mean time the wall is still there, the security keeps improving, the operations against Gaza rockets can go at will (it’s not Hizballah in Lebanon, a sovereign country), the two-way two-sided secure road to settlements is being built.

The question of ‘Palestinian state’ will not be resolved in ‘Palestine’ - big part of it has been resolved in Iraq by removing a big sponsor and financier of terror - Saddam; the other part / leg is Iran which is providing financial and logistical support to Syria, Hizballah and other anti-Israel groups.