If anyone still had any doubts, Condi Rice made it painfully obvious that President Bush visualizes his Middle East `legacy' and a peaceful US withdrawal from Iraq as coming at Israel's expense.
Today, US Secretary of State Condi Rice made a point of dispelling illusions by the likes of Michael Oren and others who touted the president's July speech as somehow reaffirming the Bush Doctrine. And what's more, she chose an Arab media outlet, the US-funded Alhurra Arabic-language satellite network to do it.
In her interview, Rice insisted that "the future of Israel is in building a strong Israeli state in places like the Negev and Galilee" and not "under the continued occupation of the West Bank."
An interesting choice of words indeed from someone who once referred to Hamas as a `resistance movement' and shook hands with the murderers of Fatah's Tanzim.
Of course, Rice is only talking about part of the Galilee. The Bush Administration is also leaning on the Olmert government to return the Golan to Syria and make that Jew free as well so that the Syrians can once again rain rockets and artillery fire down on the Jews below....in exchange for Syria curtailing the flow of arms and foreign jihadis into Iraq so the US can withdraw gracefully.
In diplospeak, that came out as Syria must "engage in policies that suggest that it is going to be a productive and constructive member of the international community."
Just in case anyone was having difficulty with the translation, she then added that Syria she added, was "destabilizing" parts of the Middle East and allowing terrorists to enter Iraq through its border.
Rice also pledged that she and President George W Bush will "give every ounce of our energy to try and help to move forward on the two-state solution to establish the Palestinian state. I can't tell you that it will all be done when we are finished here, but I can tell you that there will be a Palestinian state."
The kicker of course, will come when Hamas and Fatah hook up again and the US is once again financing an admitted terrorist entity as well as one we pretend isn't one. The Bush Administration will finesse that one by saying that this Palestinian state he promised isn't possible without Hamas and Gaza..so of course the American taxpayer will be funding all of it.
Bush's basic strategy is to bribe the Palestinians (and by extension, the Saudis) with American money and Israeli land as Israel is pressured to make more and more concessions to the Palestinians in exchange for a few photo-ops and some worthless guarantees.
Thus far, even the guarantees aren't there. Abbas has gotten a commitment from the US of almost half a billion dollars. From Olmert, he's already gotten an amnesty for Fatah terrorists, several shipments of arms and ammunition, millions in tax monies and the release of 256 Fatah terrorists from Israeli custody..all in exchange for absolutely nothing.
Oslo redux, in other words.
The president is fortunate in having a terminally weak Israeli government to work with, complete with a prime minister desperate to survive in in office and avoid being dragged off to jail.
If these circumstances combine to force Israel back to indefensible borders,the result will not be peace..although President Bush might be safely out of office by the time the hammer falls.
Nor will Israel's demise and emasculation go without consequences for the US and the West. There are always major payback from selling out an ally during wartime.
I'd advise the Israelis not to count on the president's good will, and quickly get themselves a government willing to stand up to the Bush Administration and say no...while they still have a country. Israel still has plenty of friends here who realize its importance to America's war against jihad, but ultimately they will have to provide a standard for those friends to gather around. Olmert and Tzipi Livni ain't even in the ballgame.
As for the present occupant of the White House..enjoy your retirement, Mr. President. The sooner, the better.
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