Posted on 04/05/2002 4:52:17 PM PST by gumbo
Bush Derides Clinton's Mideast Work
Fri Apr 5, 8:25 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush says the Mideast summit sponsored by former President Clinton resulted in a "significant intefadeh," or uprising, repeating an accusation his press secretary got in trouble for uttering.
"It wasn't all that long ago where a summit was called and nothing happened, and as a result we had significant intefadeh in the area," Bush told Britain's ITV network in an interview taped for his weekend talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair
The Middle East crisis and Bush's decision to send Secretary of State Colin Powell on a peacemaking mission will dominate their talks.
During his last months in office, Clinton was heavily engaged in pressing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to strike an accord, but his intensive diplomacy — capped by the 2000 Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Camp David presidential retreat — failed.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, defending Bush against criticism that he had not played an active peacemaking role in contrast to Clinton, noted to reporters in February that the 17-month Palestinian uprising broke out during Clinton's presidency.
"In an attempt to shoot the moon and get nothing, more violence resulted," Fleischer said.
Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, lodged a complaint with Bush's national security chief, Condoleezza Rice . She asked Fleischer to retract his comment, though advisers said at the time that Fleischer reflected the president's privately held views.
"No United States president, including President Clinton, is to blame for violence in the Middle East," Fleischer said in retraction.
Aides said Friday that Bush was not blaming Clinton, either, but rather Arafat for missing opportunities to make peace with Israel — both in 2000 and during Bush's presidency.
Without mentioning Clinton by name, Bush said in the British television interview that a U.S. president should not call a summit without a good prospect for success.
"The only time that's appropriate for a U.S. president to call a summit, when it looks like something can get done," he said.
"The problem is, the American president, when he calls a summit, better get it right," Bush said. "If a summit fails, if the president ... lays it out there and nothing happens, generally the ... follow-up is worse than the status quo."
Bush did not rule out sponsoring a Mideast summit down the line. "Someday you may say, `I remember when I talked to old Bush, and there he is, sitting there with a big summit.' But now is not the time for one. I've got a different strategy."
In my opinion, Clinton took both Arafat and Barak for a ride. Arafat thought Clinton respected him by treating him as a statesman, and Clinton duped Barak into thinking that he thought highly of him by sending Carville to help get Barak elected.
It turned out Clinton looked upon both of them pretty much the same way he looked upon women -- he simply used them. In this case it was a desperate, unsuccessful attempt to win himself a Nobel Prize. Say what you want about Arafat, but I truly believe that he had identified Clinton's true motivation long before anyone else did.
Bush: "Howdya like this set of wheels, Tony? Can't beat a Ford truck, now can you?"
Blair: "I must admit I am impressed, Mr. Bush. Over in England we are such limp-wristed socialists with such high gas taxes that I could fit three of my government's biggest cars into the back of this thing. What do you call this, anyway -- a Ford Battleship with the diesel locomotive engine option?"
This has everything to do with Clinton having his eye on the Nobel eace Prize, instead of the nation's peace.
His conceit is apparant by his lack of handling over the issue.
But clinton was the US President for godsake. He isn't supposed to step on landmines planted by jerkwater despots at his own summit! He's supposed to know what he's doing so this kind of fiasco doesn't happen.
If Arafat needed a trigger for his intifada, and set up clinton at his own summit to pull the trigger, then at least, clinton is guilty of gross incompetence for being sucked in.
This starts with the abomination of the Oslo Accords - a secretly negotiated deal between individuals, rather than between the countries they would affect.
Clintons mistake(and I remember it being said over and over in the press)was treating Arafart like a leader and not the slimey terrorist that he is.
Don't underestimate the impact of such an insult on the Arabs
Don't underestimate the impact of such an insult on the Arabs
Don't underestimate the impact of such an insult on the Arabs
This needs to be repeated and repeated.
Remember also that there had to be handshaking. Clinton the buffoon was unclean. His action was absolutely repulsive and denigrating.
Refers to my #6.
And the stolen FBI files of the Republicans are still in action, I see.
I never thought of it this way before, but it makes a lot of sense.
When you try to force a deal between parties who have no intention of settling, this is what you get.
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