Posted on 11/19/2001 10:14:51 AM PST by Nachum
The White House has intervened to water down today's planned speech on the Middle East by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to prevent any appearance of United States concessions being made to terrorists.
President George Bush is believed to have sided with the Pentagon and with the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and has blocked Mr Powell from putting too much pressure on Israel to make concessions in the search for peace.
As a result, Washington officials said, the long-awaited speech on US policy, which began to be drafted before the September 11 attack and which was to have been delivered several weeks ago, would be what one called "less of a new initiative and more of a general call for people to buck up their ideas".
Mr Bush pleased Palestinian officials nine days ago by declaring that the US was "working towards the day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognised borders", the first time he had referred to a hoped-for Palestinian state by name. The Administration also accepts that Israel will eventually have to give up land for peace, in accordance with a United Nations resolution.
However, Mr Bush refused to meet the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, at the UN General Assembly, and at a diplomatic lunch he declined to greet or acknowledge him. Bush aides said he was signalling his dissatisfaction with Mr Arafat's efforts to crack down on terrorists in Palestinian-controlled territory. The snub so incensed Mr Arafat - he is said to have felt humiliated - that a UN envoy was sent to Gaza last week to calm him. Mr Arafat also faced a snub at home when his Fatah faction was beaten for the first time in more than 30 years in student elections last week at Nablus University by radical Hamas Islamic activists.
Mr Arafat's group suffered a 25 per cent drop in support as Hamas swept to a 48 seat to 28 victory on the general student assembly. The outcome is particularly significant because student elections are now the only free expression of opinion in the Palestinian territories. Mr Arafat has refused to hold legislative and municipal elections for more than five years.
Mr Powell's original aim was to set out the Administration's vision for setting up a Palestinian state, including complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, to be followed by peace negotiations on final status issues such as borders, refugees and the fate of Jerusalem.
He has been encouraged by signs that moderate Arab states will recognise Israel and its continued right to exist if the Palestinians decide to do so themselves, an essential element of any peace agreement. Last week Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said: "If the Palestinians accept this issue we will respect the wishes of the Palestinian nation."
Mr Powell is now expected to confine himself to an impassioned call for both sides to implement the ceasefire brokered in June, and for a freeze on Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
He is said to be unhappy at the restrictions placed on his pronouncement, and it was not certain that the Middle East would now secure more than a passing mention.
The Telegraph, London
As a result, Washington officials said, the long-awaited speech on US policy, which began to be drafted before the September 11 attack and which was to have been delivered several weeks ago, would be what one called "less of a new initiative and more of a general call for people to buck up their ideas".
Bump.
Maybe he'll do us all a great favor and resign.
I'm glad somebody reigned him in. He's a blabbermouth fool. He is on probation.
This man, our president, never ceases to delight me.
Sounds like they have him on a very short leash. It's probably also why he's been so out of the picture lately. Today's speech was the first one he's given in quite a while, isn't it?
-penny
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