As if the previous post weren’t bad enough, there’s this report of the Bush/Abbas press conference in the Jerusalem Post:
n a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Bush demanded that the PA confront violence before the elections, but refrained from demanding that Hamas be disarmed before it is allowed to take part in the political process. He referred only to “armed gangs,” and did not mention Hamas by name.
[…] Bush was full of praise to Abbas in their joint press conference and repeated several times that he had chosen the way of peace and had run for office with a platform of peace.
Sure. The way of peace and the platform of peace: Peace between palestinians. Let us not forget that Abbas was Yasser Arafat’s hand-picked choice, and that he stood shoulder to shoulder with the mass murderer for decades.
The message to Abbas, according to one source, was that: “You have to role up your sleeves and start working, buddy. Otherwise you’re not going to have a Palestinian state.”
He also dismissed the notion that Israel would be disappointed that Bush did not call on Abbas to ban Hamas from participating in elections or even refer to it by name.
He said Bush was leaving the “internal matter” of who participates in elections up to the PA, but warning it that it would face the consequences of allowing armed groups to run. The source summarized: “It’s your problem, and it’s a problem you have to solve.”
No, I think it’s going to be Israel’s problem, when the arms are directed her way, and the blood starts flowing freely again.
Funny. The Taliban wasn’t allowed to run in the Afghan elections. Ba’athists were prevented from running in the Iraqi elections. But it’s just ducky to let Hamas terrorists run in the palestinian elections.
Why? Because terror against Jews is part of The Exception Clause. But you all knew that already.
NOW you believe he’s an idiot? I got there ten years ago when he was the Governor of Texas. Why do you think the state voted so heavily for him? It got him out of their statehouse…
President Welcomes Palestinian President Abbas to the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051020.html
The way forward must begin by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic Palestine. And those armed gangs must confront the threat that armed gangs pose to lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
[My emphasis in bold.]
Interesting. I guess that’s a slip – the truth emerging briefly through the cloudy PC atmosphere:
The armed gangs that go by the collective name of the ‘Palestinian Authority’ must confront the threat that they themselves as well as other armed gangs pose to democracy and the peace process.
No doubt we’ll see the term used more and more often since the fashionable trend is to promote one terrorist, Abbas, as the leader of choice over other terrorists such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad who will be described as ‘armed gangs’ now that the word ‘terrorist’ has been successfully removed from the English language.
Bush is a major disappointment. I was impressed when he cold-shouldered Arafat. But now he’s going down precisely the same path with Abbas as Clinton did with Arafat. And what’s with all the bitching against Israel? One meeting with Abbas, and Bush comes out talking like Palestinian terrorist.
Bush has pissed away any moral authority he had in the War On Terror.
It’s only a matter of time before he has to treat Hezbollah like he’s decided to treat Hamas.
All I can say is Thank G-d Israel has nuclear weapons.
(Need the GPS coordinates for Crawford to knock some sense into W?)
But that was obvious, for those in the region, way back in May.
As for Hammas, Rice when she suddenly appeared in Beirut, during her visit to the region, demanded that Israel give up non-Lebanese territory [Sheba Farms – which Israel captured from Syria!] cause Hezbollah was threatening to destabilise the area.
Washington sees the Shebaa Plateau as containing the potential of another Middle East crisis and the main excuse for Hizbullah’s continued presence,”
Ooops! Hammas should be corrected to Hezbollah.
If Bush is an idiot what does that make the two guys who lost to him?
My own answer to the question I posed – I suppose that makes Kerry and Gore idiots squared. Bush is hated in Europe precisely because he is perceived (rightly or wrongly) as being too sympathetic towards Israel.
Wrongly. But that’s far from the only reason they don’t like him:
*He’s a Christian
*They see him as a cowboy
*He invaded Iraq, thereby destroying the cosy relationship Germany and France and other countries had with Saddam.
That was really unforgivable.
Actually, I believe that ex-Taliban who forswore violence were allowed to run in the Afghan elections. And I gather that the Islamist parties did very well.
I’m with you all the way on W., though.
You know, someday, Ben, I’m going to see a comment by you that does not refute what I say in my post, and I will drop dead from shock.