Add to the list of Bush's foreign policy failings a lack of progress in the Arab-Israeli "peace process," but the scare quotes might give away my suspicion that more blame lies elsewhere.
Having said that, it's hard to see what Rice is trying to accomplish these days. She started before even arriving by admonishing the Israelis not to do aything that might jeopardize future talks. The Palestinians think it's all a waste of time unless the US imposes a blueprint for a final settlement on Israel, which is to say a "return" to pre-1967 "borders," and some "right of return" for Palestinians.
You would never believe Israel has won every single war she's been forced to fight; that by any military standard, combined Arab armies, Hizaballah, Fatah, and Hamas have been humiliated again and again, etc. Israel is asked to make political concessions, compromise its citizens' security, and make mea culpas for every real and imagined transgression. While the Arab states and corrupt and cruel Palestinian leadership can freely make demands as a condition for not inflicting more suffering on their own people.
It's time, it's way past time, that Western political leaders said it like it was: Israel is far from perfect, but whatever errors and misdeeds committed by are a) sadly typical of any country, even the best of them, under pressure, and b) they pale into nothing when compared to what Arab regimes do to their own people and their enemies.
Fatah, Hamas, and Hizballah are terrorist organizations. Unless and until they renounce and abandon their terrorist ways, there is no point in negotiating with them. Rice should canvel her trip, Blair should come home, and that's what they should tell the world.
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