The Annapolis farce force

The Annapolis farce will continue, now with the Golan Heights on the agenda. Let us remember that Israel just bombed a nascent Syrian nuclear plant in the desert, and yet, Syria is the nation that gets to set the demands on the return of the Golan Heights—territory Syria lost in the Six-Day War, and territory from which Syria regularly bombed Israeli civilian targets during supposedly “peaceful” times.

The United States has agreed to put the occupied Golan Heights on the agenda of the Annapolis peace conference, but Syria will decide whether to attend when it receives the schedule, Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said on Friday.

“The United States has sent confirmation that it will include the Syrian-Israeli track… The Golan… On the Annapolis schedule,” the Syrian news agency quoted Moualem as saying.

There was no immediate comment from Washington.

The Damascus government has repeatedly said it would only attend the US-hosted conference, which aims to restart talks on Palestinian statehood, if the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967, are on the agenda.

And by the way, the Saudis really don’t want to be there, and the Arabs don’t want to touch the Israelis.

Al-Faisal told a press conference that an Arab League meeting Friday had decided that Arab countries will attend Annapolis at the level of foreign minister. “I’m not hiding any secret about the Saudi position.

We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go,” al-Faisal said. “But the kingdom would never stand against an Arab consensus, as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line.”

But he cautioned, “We are not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meeting that don’t express political positions. We are going with seriousness and we work on the same seriousness and credibility.”

Let me translate you “seriousness and credibility” via my Arab-and-or-Muslim dictator/English dictionary: “Unless Israel capitulates to all of our demands, we agree to nothing.”

And now that Ehud Olmert has agreed to give the terrorists 25 APCs, we can expect a major attack, soon, and probably from both the West Bank and Gaza. With help from Hizballah. My hope in this case is that Olmert never actually gave a date for the “gift” of 25 APCs, so perhaps he’s doing the smoke-and-mirrors thing. At least, I hope he is.

I still can’t believe the Israelis haven’t forced this incompetent out of office yet. What has he got on the opposition that’s stopping them from getting rid of him?