President Bush told Reuters (which then trumpeted the line as a headline) that Israeli settlement building is an “impediment” to peace.
US President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an “impediment” to the success of revived peace efforts and urged the Jewish state to follow through on its pledge to dismantle unauthorized settler outposts.
[…] Bush said he would use his trip to keep up pressure on both sides, including making clear to Israelis his concern about continued Jewish settlement activity.
“I will talk about Israeli settlement expansion, about how that is, that can be, you know, an impediment to success,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The unauthorized outposts for example need to be dismantled, like the Israelis said they would do.”
So much for Ariel Sharon’s famous letter from Bush. But that aside, let’s see what isn’t an impediment to peace.
Not this:
IDF forces operating in Nablus Thursday night found two pipes resembling Qassam-like rockets in later stages of assembly in a laboratory in the West Bank city’s Casbah.
Aided by intelligence pinpointing its location, the IDF forces found the laboratory with two pipes as well as the launching ramps for the projectiles.
The IDF said the rockets were in the advanced stages of assembly.
Not a katyusha rocket landing in Ashkelon.
Not a terror attack perpetrated by members of the Palestinian security forces.
Not the constant network of terrorists in the West Bank—the part of the Palestinian territories that is ruled by the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority, which has supposedly been clamping down on terrorists in their ranks.
And not the near-daily launches of kassam rockets and mortars from Gaza.
No, none of these have been labeled “impediments to peace” by the President of the United States. However, the act of building apartments for Israelis? Those are “impediments to peace.”
The Palestinians lost the effing war. Israel gets to keep Jerusalem, or at least, the non-Arab parts of it. The world needs to get a clue and learn to live with that fact.
I wish Bush would hole up in the White House for the rest of his term, stay out of sight and keep his mouth shut. Lately every time he opens his mouth he lays an egg.