President George W. Bush, the man for whom I voted because of his stance in the war on terror, will not pressure the palestinians to prevent Hamas from running in the upcoming elections.
WASHINGTON – The United States will not actively oppose Hamas’ participation in the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections, Palestinian officials said following U.S. President George Bush’s meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.
Even before the White House meeting, American officials said that while Washington objects in principle to allowing an armed organization to run in the elections, the final decision rests with the PA. And while Bush raised the issue of disarming Hamas prior to elections at Thursday’s meeting, he did not dwell on it or pressure Abbas, Palestinian sources said. He also did not mention the issue during a joint press conference with Abbas following the meeting. American officials explained that Bush believes there is no advantage to staging a frontal confrontation with Abbas a few months prior to the January elections.
There is no advantage to pushing Abbas to conform to his duties as determined by the Road Map, which are to disarm terror organizations and prevent terrorism against Israel.
No. There’s no advantage. It’s only going to prevent more Jewish deaths. We wouldn’t want you to pressure the PA to do the right thing at the expense of Israeli lives, though. No, instead, Bush is going to pressure Israel:
“Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes its roadmap obligations,” Bush said, referring to a blueprint for peacemaking approved by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.
Without elaboration, the president said Israel would be “held to account” for any actions that hamper peacemaking or burden the lives of Palestinians.
But Bush said he was a “heck of a lot more confident” of peace prospects than when he first took office five years ago. Both Abbas and Prime minister Ariel Sharon are committed to making peace, he said.
Well, that’s a relief. Bush is more confident, even though there’s no proof whatsoever that the pals are ready to stop murdering Jews, and even though palestinian television is currently showing an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli program that claims (among other things) that Israel is infecting palestinians with AIDS.
Ariel Sharon is a fool. The supposed letter from Bush he got is worthless. Bush sold out Israel. Watch for another Oslo in the final years of the Bush Administration, because once again, I’m not seeing a difference between his Mideast policy and his predecessor’s.
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All that’s happening is that Baker’s arabist policy for the area is being implemented.
His State Department helped bring back Arafat from isolation and forced him on Israel.
Only now they are continuing with Arafat’s henchman.
If you think that Kerry and his Euro/UN/centric foreign policy would have been friendly towards Israel, you would have a lot of unpleasant surprises to wake up to. So far all Bush has given Abbas is meaningless words. The security fence is almost completed and Israel is taking the offensive agaisnt terrorists. Every day arrests are being made. I do not care for welcoming Abbas to the White House but he would have been welcomed there no matter who would have been President (with the exception of a Rudolph Giuliani Presidency).
Joel,
Meryl did not say or imply anything remotely like “… Kerry and his Euro/UN/centric foreign policy would have been friendly towards Israel”.
Gary Rosen:
I know that Meryl never said that Kerry would have been better for Israel. However when she wrote that she voted for Bush and now is starting to regret it, I can only therefore assume she wishes she had voted for Kerry (not Nader of course) and she is certainly entitled to feel that way. I was merely positing that Bush for the most part has only offered Mahmoud Abbas some rhetoric and nothing substantial. I feared that a Kerry Administration in its desire to be in the good graces of Chirac, Schroder, Zapatero, and the rest of the Eurotrash would have been almost Carteresque in its Middle East policies. Sometimes the choices are between two guys who fall short but you have to make the best choice available. President Reagan was very pro Israel despite having an Israel hating Defense Secretary named Casper Weinberger.
I just thouight that Kerry was worse, the lesser of 2 evils.
But trust me, plenty of Pro Israeli Christians share our common disappointment with him.
What I fear though is that there might be a depressing ‘voice’ among some disappointed conservatives like: “What’s the point in being active… if it’s like that when WE had the house…”.
Telling it like it is