Posted on 10/02/2001 10:24:10 AM PDT by Judge Parker
With Israel's back to the wall, the world just became a much more dangerous place. This ain't going to be pretty.
The Stormfront crowd will be disappointed in the end result. Jews, especially Israelis, will no longer 'go quietly into that dark night'.
Tuesday October 2, 10:03 PM
Bush says Palestinian state 'always' part of US vision
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (AFP) - President George W. Bush said Tuesday that creating a Palestinian state has "always" been part of the US vision for peace in the Middle East as long as Israel's right to exist is respected.
"The idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of a vision, so long as the right to Israel to exist is respected," he told reporters in the White House Oval Office.
Bush also said he stood firmly behind a roadmap to peace crafted by an international panel headed by former US senator George Mitchell and said US officials were "working diligently" to end a year-long cycle of violence.
"First things first, when it comes to the Middle East, we've got to get to Mitchell," he said, calling those recommendations "a viable blueprint that most of the world agrees with is a necessary path to ultimately solving the problems of the Middle East.
His comments came as senior US officials said that Washington's plans to unveil a major Middle East peace initiative, including possible support for a Palestinian state, were stalled by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"We had started in fact to make more strenuous efforts in the Middle East," a senior State Department official said.
The official and others said the efforts were aimed at producing substantial progress -- particularly in the form of a meeting between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres -- by the annual UN General Assembly session that was postponed because of the attack on the World Trade Center.
"In the run up to the UN, the main thrust of the plan was to revolve around the meetings with Peres and Arafat," a second senior official said.
Arafat and Peres have in fact now met under heavy US pressure but a truce reached between them is increasingly fragile and the official said postponement of the UN session hurt the initiative.
"We had been looking at the UN session not as time to unveil a plan but to get some momentum," he said. "We haven't proceeded exactly as we might have after the attacks but the basic outline is still in play."
One official disputed accounts in The Washington Post and The New York Times that said Secretary of State Colin Powell was to have given in speech at the UN voicing US support for a Palestinian state -- the first time a Republican administration would have done so.
That official, close to Powell, said the secretary had not planned to make such a speech and that Bush's address to the world body was not intended to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The secretary doesn't make a a UN speech and the president's speech wasn't going to be a Middle East speech," the official said.
According to the Post, Powell would have laid out general principles for the settlement of the most difficult issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including determining final borders and the return and status of Palestinian refugees.
But, the daily said, a final decision had not yet been made and that some in the White House were hesitating over coming out in favor of Palestinian statehood.
The official close to Powell did confirm newspaper reports that a meeting between Bush and Arafat had been suggested and was being actively worked on.
"That was floating around at the time but it was not completely locked in," the official said, referring to the last days of August and early September when the United States was being criticized for a perceived lack of engagement in the region and for boycotting a UN racism conference over anti-Israel language.
The Times reported that the decision to move ahead with the new initiative was made in early September at a meeting of the National Security Council and that Bush, now preoccupied with forging a global coalition against terrorism, may still make a forceful declaration on the Middle East crisis.
The US leader dismissed those reports Tuesday as "speculation."
"What I'm telling you is, is that we are fully committed to the Mitchell process, and we are fully committed to working with both sides to bring the level of terror down to an acceptable level for both," he said.
"I fully understand that progress is made in centimeters in the Middle East. And we believe we're making some progress," Bush said.
A clear statement from the US administration in favor of a Palestinian state would meet demands from moderate Arab states that Washington has been trying to rally to its anti-terrorism campaign.
With friends like these, you don't need any enemies. I can't find anything likable about our new "friends".
That's why I said the world has suddenly become a much more dangerous place. If this is true, this is a very serious matter. The world is on the edge of a deep, dark valley.
FYI Looks like new marching orders.You ever taken a walk in Manger Square over Christmas?Geopolitical realities after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon will force the United States to back away from its relationship with Israel and favor Muslim allies
I highly doubt these eggheads at Stradle-for or WorldNutDaily have either ...
If this is true, then the world has gone completely insane and taken our leaders with it.
And if that is true, I'm not going to follow any more.
Happily, I think this article is crap. Lot of that going around lately.
Well, they're good at threatening us, refusing to help us when we're attacked, supporting our enemies, back-stabbing us, and killing us. What more could we ask for in a "friend?"
Is that a serious question?
A close friend of mine who was the senior Army intelligence officer in Vietam for more than two years has been impressed with STRATFOR. They are normally very level-headed, and very thorough. I, however, will join with you in hoping they are wrong. Surely, they are.
And, I will agree with you that no one should jump to conclusions because of an article like this, but we should keep our heads up.
You apparently have inside knowledge about the "egg-heads" at STRATFOR, do you know why so many businessmen with overseas interests have so much confidence in them?
I found them way ahead of the national media when we were bombing the Serbs. I'm surprised that you automatically write them off. I hope your response isn't an indication that you will stand in opposition to the president if he is moving our country in a new direction.
I'm not surprised that you don't immediately swallow everything they state, anyone would be a fool to do that. But, a knee-jerk attitude that Jews probably know nothing about Israel? Which Government agency do you work for?
I truly hope none of this is true. And, STRATFOR may be a pretty good source of information, and the information could still be bad. But, they're very well connected, and articles like this make me consider the possibilities. And, it is not possible to move towards a more global society without the Muslims on board.
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