[monkeyshine]

Mostly a BS speech, IMHO.

The only concrete thing he said was that we are going to go in and control new elections. That'll be interesting. How are we going to get Arafat out, and then... how are we going to get Hamas out... and then, when a new leader is sworn in, how is he going to get the allegience of the people to stomp terrorism, esp when 55% of the people support suicide bombing?

I dunno RCW2001, call me a pessimist, but I think Bush just set the Palestinians up to fail, again.

[Torie]

Actually, I thought the Bush speech was pretty hardline. Basically, he was saying there will be no movement towards a settlement unless and until Palestine is a non corrupt democracy which is otherwise house broken with an effective security apparatus effectively rooting out terrorists. That is a rather tall order. I don't expect peace negotiations anytime soon. Israel should go about its business of building the wall, stop all entry of Arabs, and stop its unproductive sweeps etc. of bad guy neighborhoods.

[SunStar]

How are we going to get Arafat out, and then... how are we going to get Hamas out... and then, when a new leader is sworn in, how is he going to get the allegience of the people to stomp terrorism, esp when 55% of the people support suicide bombing?

These are not our problems. These are the Palestinian Arabs' problems. We cannot expel Arafat nor can Israel, if he is the "official" leader of his people. They, and only they, can expel him and elect better leaders. If they do not, then they will suffer whatever consequences exist.