You know ... sometimes I wonder about Dubya's sense of timing. I mean, yes, the Arabs do need to know that at some point the US would be willing to support a Palestinian state under certain conditions. But, you know, perhaps the week in which you've already said that once and been accused of offering a long-time ally up as an appeasement entrée would not be the time to state that again. Politically, it gains you nothing with the Arabs -- after all, you've made your position clear -- and simply aggravates Israel. And let's face it; Israel has some right on its side. There's no point in negotiating with Arafat until and unless he's shown that he's willing and able to exercise at least some control over various Palestinian factions.
In any event, Israel's own government is so badly divided at the moment that it couldn't hope to negotiate in anything like good faith. Sharon is trying to show that the Palestinian terror attacks are increasing, and Peres is trying to demonstrate that they've dropped. One hopes that Sharon's upcoming indictment really will cause a no-confidence vote from the Knesset; that government badly needs to pull itself onto the same page, whatever that page may be.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
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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
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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!