Posted on 06/11/2003 1:00:11 AM PDT by yonif
It’s hard not to like George W. Bush, and opinion polls in the United States show that most people do. He has changed the world for the good, and while no one expects perfection, there are times when falling short can make the rest of what he does matter much less.
Last week, he focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict showing little appreciation of what had gone before and in doing that he made himself vulnerable and involved himself in something that could diminish much of what he’s done elsewhere.
Opinion writer Charles Krauthammer thinks that the United States put its prestige on the line at both conferences and came out the worse for it. “The first, with the Arab States, was an abject failure,” he says, and the second between Arik Sharon and Abu Mazen, in his opinion, echoed the failed Oslo deal of ten years before. It was telling that Israel was excluded from the first meeting and a heavy-handed United States ended up doing the Saudi bidding in the second.
At Sharm el Sheikh, conference number one, the Saudis threatened to walk out if the document codifying the meeting’s outcome included anything about normalizing relations with Israel or the existence of a Jewish State. In fact, the Saudis wouldn’t allow language into the statement that countered their position on establishing a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem or the absolute right of return for Arabs into all of Israel. The Saudis also balked at the substantative steps of defunding Hamas and disbanding militant groups.
At the most fundamental level, both the Defense Department and National Security Adviser Condolezza Rice understood that eliminating the terror groups who are killing Israelis on a daily basis would be a logical prerequisite for peace. But the State Department bowed to Saudi demands, and the President went along with State.
The Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba meetings produced agreements that closely resembled the scheme that Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia cooked up last year with his erstwhile adviser, Tom Friedman of the New York Times. Both plans don’t mention Israel as a Jewish State and avoid the issue of an Arab claim to a right of return into the State of Israel. This is the deal the administration has now made its own, and if it happens, it will mean the end of the Jewish State of Israel.
Just to show how things have changed since 1990, this type of proposal would never have seen the light of day. Israel would not have accepted it, and the U.S. would never have proposed it.
Ze’ev Begin recently wrote in a brilliant article in Ha’aretz, “The logic of terrorism is cruel but simple: inducing governments to change their positions by intimidating the citizens…The terrorism perpetrated by the PLO and Hamas against Israel has been a very successful project.”
Editorial writer Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post recently pointed out that since the beginning of May and Abu Mazen’s putative rule, there’ve been an average of 12 terrorist incidents a day in Israel. June started off with five Israeli deaths, authenticating the new Israeli self-deprecation that Israelis are “dying to please.”
It could be said the American leadership doesn’t know any better whenever they support this type of plan and push Israel to the brink. But they do.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of the world’s 10 richest people, visited the killing grounds of Sept. 11 in lower Manhattan, with a check for $10 million for the victims. The check however, was wrapped in blame and rationalization that called for the reevaluation of U.S. policy towards Israel. Then-Mayor Rudy Guiliani knew exactly what to do with that check, and he made America proud.
In a few spontaneous and pointed words, Guiliani let the Saudi know his money and his message were not welcome. No strategist or State Department flak parsed the Mayor’s words and his meaning was clear. The Mayor let the world’s despots and terror regimes know exactly where the United States and its people stood.
When the Saudis demanded that a Jewish State not be mentioned at either conference and that the right of return be left intact, George Bush missed the historic opportunity to do the same.
Bush has sacrificed on the alter of political correctness his presidency.
Rice and Rumsfeld argue to destroy terrorism.
Powell wants to negotiate with murderers.
What is wrong with this picture?
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