Bush and Sharon in Aqaba: "Don't Try These Tricks on Me Again" (DER SPIEGEL)

Der Spiegel ^ | Jun 5, 2003 | Volkhard Windfuhr

[tictoc]

BUSH AND SHARON IN AQABA

"Don't Try These Tricks on Me Again"

By Volkhard Windfuhr, Aqaba

At the Summit of Three in Aqaba, George W. Bush was extremely brusque with Ariel Sharon. Arriving in an irritable mood, the US president encountered a Prime Minister who appeared morose.

AP
Sharon, Bush, Abbas

Exactly 36 years ago today, Israeli tanks rolled over Egyptian border guards on the Sinai without any advance warning, while in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said sirens shrilly reported enemy planes. The infamous Six Days War had broken out, a war whose territorial and political consequences plague the Middle East to this day.

Yesterday, though, on the eve of the ominous anniversary of battle, an atmospheric change in the situation became apparent. Following the American/Arab summit in the upscale Egyptian beach resort Sharm al Sheikh on the Red Sea, its star participant George W. Bush arrived yesterday in Aqaba, Jordan's only port city at the hot and humid Northern end of the Red Sea, to meet with Jordan's king Abdullah II, the newly appointed Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas, and Israel's right-wing head of government Ariel Sharon -- who in a childish fit of pique had rejected Bush's invitation to also participate in Sharm al Sheikh because of the alleged pro-Palestinian stance of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak -- for the second Middle East summit.

But unlike in Sharm al Sheikh, the US boss was in an irritable mood even before the official talks began. Bemused conference participants reported a harsh exchange of words between the victor of Baghdad, whose self-confidence is growing by the day, and the Prime Minister from Jerusalem, who appeared morose. The discourse was heated.

"Don't try these tricks on me again", the great George Dubya warned the shirt-sleeved Israeli in the presence of the astonished Hashemite ruler from Amman; the Israeli uncharacteristically stared at the Palm Beach. That was not what he had expected from the American "friend".

Why the bad mood? The bone of contention was formed by the Jewish settlements on the West Bank, which must be "removed from the table" in the interest of peace, according to the newly acquired insight of the man from the White House. Bush jr. is no longer going to be content with the much-hyped evacuation of a few illegal trailer settlements that Israeli media styled a generous "sacrifice for peace".

Thus Mahmud Abbas, called Abu Masin by his friends, was deliverately given special treatment by the real host of the two Red Sea summits. The PLO diplomat, who had been appointed Palestine's first Prime Minister by the officially shunned Yassir Arafat, clearly enjoyed the friendly winks and pats on the back bestowed on him by George Bush.

And Abu Masin had well earned the solicitous gestures. For after spending hours on the phone with "President Arafat", still locked into his half-destroyed headquarters in Ramallah near Jerusalem, he had announced the willingness of the Palestinian leadership to end the armed Intifada. Bush received this good news beaming, while Israel's Sharon was stonefaced.

Understandably so. If the Palestine leader, determined to take forceful action, should manage even only halfway to stop the wave of bloody attacks by the Islamist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, then Sharon will have to declare his policy's bankruptcy -- and risk the collapse of his cabinet of hardliners. But if he fails to do so or if he tries to pull the wool over the eyes of the self-declared American apostle of peace, he will get into trouble in Washington, where the Jewish lobby already now is starting to split because of the festering settlement problem. It's just as in 1978, when Egypt's ex-president Anwar al-Sadat was the first Arab leader to dare to make peace with Israel and thereby split the Jewish lobby. And when George W. Bush went so far as confessing that he was "touched by the spirit of the great al-Sadat", the ground trembled beneath the feet of the Likud leader.

[tictoc]

Translation (c) tictoc

[BrooklynGOP]

Exactly 36 years ago today, Israeli tanks rolled over Egyptian border guards on the Sinai without any advance warning, while in Cairo,

That's where I stopped reading.

[Ingtar]

Ditto. That line told me the point of view.

[tictoc]

That's where I stopped reading.

You shouldn't have. I translate these excerpts to give an idea of how the extremely influential Spiegel news magazine is shaping public opinion in Germany.

Germany is the largest member state of the EU. It used to be that German politicians on all sides of the political spectrum would pledge support to Israel, out of a sense of obligation, even if not all of them sincerely felt that way.

Today their political heirs are daily wiggling farther away from that obligation. The "news report" in Der Spiegel is one of the ways in which this change is being accomplished.

[tictoc]

Longjack, would you please ping your German list?

[dagar]

Yep, that's the same spot I stopped too.

Some history -- the provocation section is MOST interesting:
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/67_War.html

[Centurion2000]

Exactly 36 years ago today, Israeli tanks rolled over Egyptian border guards on the Sinai without any advance warning, while in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said sirens shrilly reported enemy planes. The infamous Six Days War had broken out, a war whose territorial and political consequences plague the Middle East to this day.

No slant here .... nevermind that pesky little fact that the ARABS STARTED THIS WAR.

[Reagan is King]

Thanks for the "Der Spiegel" warning on the headline. I was ready for propaganda (and I got it).

[darkwing104]

You shouldn't have. I translate these excerpts to give an idea of how the extremely influential Spiegel news magazine is shaping public opinion in Germany.

Thanks for the translation. It seems a shame on what is going on in parts of Europe.

[BrooklynGOP]

I like this part:

Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force, stationed in the Sinai since 1956, to withdraw on May 16. Without bringing the matter to the attention of the General Assembly, as his predecessor had promised, Secretary-General U Thant complied with the demand.

[jpl]

Influential isn't necessarily a virtue in and of itself. Mein Kampf was also influential.

Der Speigel does a great job with the naked women, but their political propaganda sucks.

[Hyacinth Bucket]

"Don't try these tricks on me again"

If Bush really said this to Sharon, I think that this is rude and arrogant behavior on Bush's part. Trying to butter up the Palestinian in order to force the success of the stupid road map at the expense of Sharon and Israel, is not the way to go. Of course, it is entirely possible that Bush's words were not as harsh as reported here in this biased German article.

[Miss Marple]

This is nothing like any of the other accounts I have read. I would take this article with a grain of salt about as large as my handbag.

[Words]

---

Come on.
The description of the Bush-Sharon meeting here that's more important.

[tictoc]

My take is that the Arabs offered their spin on the event to any journalist willing to believe them, and in the SPIEGEL writer they found an eager believer.

What's yours?

[longjack]

German Ping

[Words]

My take is that the Arabs offered their spin on the event to any journalist willing to believe them, and in the SPIEGEL writer they found an eager believer.

They'd be glad to any time.
But I tend to believe it. Bush's peace stampede doesn't demand anything from Abu Mazen except hollow words, because Abu Mazen's a de-facto Washington's appointee and they wouldn't admit any failure in judgement; from Sharon it demands hard concessions - land, "settlements", pullout, internal opposition. I wouldn't be surprised if Sharon tried to sort something out at the last moments and got a kick from the "biggest friend Israel ever had".

[joesnuffy]

I thought it was german tanks rolling into poland without any advanced warning..

[americanbychoice1]

GOEBBELS IS ALIVE AND WELL IN GERMANY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tictoc]

As far as I'm concerned, everything in that article is a lie, including the words "and", "the", and "is".

Not only does it rewrite history (painting Israel as the party who started the Six Days War without advance warning).

That bit about Sharon having rejected an invitation to attend in Sharm el Sheikh -- where did that come from? Wouldn't we have heard about that long ago already?