Re: ...my take on this is that the Americans want to make sure the Palestinians know that we don't care about them. We want to remind them that we are only proposing to help them to gain some support in the Mid East for our current and future actions.
C'mon, Thomas! Have you totally forgotten Sharon's dud trip to Washington in February?? Not only he failed to win Bush over to "terminate" Arafat but NSA C. Rice publicly challenged Israel's house-arrest of Arafat, calling it counterproductive... Moreover, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, one item on Sharon's agenda concerned that $800 million dough Israel's been longing for since 1999... If I remember right, such a mundane issue was assigned to Ben Eliezer (Fuad). Again, not only Sharon and his delegation didn't squeeze a penny out of their visit but President Bush solemnly announced his decision to grant Palestinian NGOs a hefty $300 million --talk about an anticlimax <g>
As for the latest developments in the ME, the Saudi "recognition-for-land" initiative was a masterstroke to snooker IRAN. Indeed, as the Karin A affair demonstrated, Iran was poised to take over the Palestinian cause... As I pointed out, such a situation would have turned Iran into a powerful broker with a hand in both Palestine/Lebanon AND Afghanistan. Actually, an Iranian comeback on the Palestinian frontstage can't be ruled out yet: if the Saudi-Egyptian initiative falls through then Iran'll barge back into the process... Of course, such an ominous outcome would toll Cheney's diplomatic death.
Gus |
