President Bush told reporters on Tuesday that a Palestinian state was always "part of a vision" if Israel's right to exist is respected.
Um ... WHAT? A part of whose vision, exactly? I'm pretty sure that until relatively recently, it wasn't on Israel's radar; they rather hoped they could shove all the Palestinians into Jordan and Lebanon. The US position has wandered all over the place in the last few administrations, and THIS administration tried ardently to disengage from the issue entirely.
Even if everyone agrees that there should be a state and that Israel should recognize it, many of the problems are almost impossible. Jerusalem alone remains an utterly intractable issue. (The only way around that would be to make it an open city, unaffiliated with any specific nation -- a city-state, in this day and age; what a concept -- move the Israeli capital to Tel Aviv or some such, and the Palestinian capital would not be allowed to be in East Jerusalem. Now how likely do you think that is?) Considering that increased US involvement not only has not led to fewer Palestinian deaths to date, but that the positions became even more entrenched after we became involved, exactly what help do they think we'll be?
Somewhere behind the scenes, we've somehow directly threatened (pardon, had "frank and forthright discussions with") both sides, no doubt. I'm not sure what it would be, but considering as both sides are making moves to talk to each other, it must have been unusually blunt and vicious. Something like saying to the Palestinians, "Negotiate, or we'll let them do as they will without saying a word against it," and to the Israelis, "We'll withdraw all military, financial, and intelligence support unless you start negotiating in something resembling good faith."
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!