Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (36448)	8/8/2002 2:23:57 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

There is a great discussion on The Middle East on The Charlie Rose show right now (its on public TV in most markets) Yes, I thought it was good, though as usual much of it was at cross-purposes. Yusuf Ibrahim of the CFR explained (very impressively, he is an impressive-sounding man) how America has destroyed its credibility in the Arab world. Since the other half of his complaint was that the Bush Administration had wanted to stay disengaged from the Israeli/Pal conflict, and had remained mostly disengaged, I was somewhat perplexed how this "destroyed American credibility." Perhaps this is just diplo-speak for "you are supporting the Israelis and we hate you." Saeb Erekat sounded rather subdued to me. When he wants to project outrage he can go for ten minutes at a time without seeming to ever draw breath, but last night he said "We need help" a number of times -- help to create the vision of a Palestinian state in three years. Uh, guy, I don't think President Bush was talking about your having anything to do with a Palestinian state (Erekat is Arafat's man). Martin Indyk (former US ambassador to Israel) talked more about the Catch 22 on the ground -- the Isralis cannot back off from the reoccupation unless the violence stops. He asked the Hamas question a lot (or, as I like to title it, The Question That Tom Friedman Never Asks), who will stop Hamas? Arafat no longer can but that scarcely matters as he never wanted to. Nobody has a shortage of plans for disengaging, we can just dust off the Tenet Plan. So the discussion turned to a number of programs that are all unlikely to happen or to work -- getting the Egyptians and the Jordanians to rebuild the PA security forces (presumably in a manner that doesn't answer to Arafat), getting US troops on the ground. The Israelis are trying to pull back because they don't want to reconstitute the authority to rule the territories. But they don't want 50 new Hamas bombings either. Nor can they just sit where they are, or people really will begin to starve. (The Human Rights whining on this score has already begun. Now I'm sure the Gazans have indeed been eating badly, but -- call me cynical -- if there was one swollen-bellied child in Gaza I believe his picture would already have been on Page One of the NY Times) And all sides are really just marking time until the US invades Iraq. So my conclusions remain unchanged. Bomb. Go in. Assasinate Hamas leaders. Withdraw. Bomb. Rinse. Repeat. Wait for the US to move.