Bush called Secretary of State Powell’s 10-day trip to the Middle East a success because he doesn’t know how to spell failure.
In case nobody noticed, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not recall Israeli Defense Forces from occupying Palestinian neighborhoods in any way, shape or form. In case nobody noticed, Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat is still in lockdown. In case nobody noticed, people are still dying and hundreds of Palestinians are missing.
Not dead, mind you. Simply missing. The media was locked out of the area and only the World War Two Germans were dumb enough to keep records of mass executions.
Two weeks ago, Bush demanded that the Israelis withdraw their forces from Palestinian Authority towns “without delay.”
Today, Bush said that his demands were met because Sharon promised to withdraw from major Palestinian cities by Sunday. Sharon added the qualifier that withdrawing forces does not mean withdrawing from the Palestinian Authority altogether.
From this date forward, anyone who has this preconception about Bush as some kind of tough, no-nonsense character can go to the nearest tattoo shop and get a big “L” carved into their forehead.
We’ll pay for it.
The fact of the matter is that the United States made explicit demands on Israel and Israel ignored the U.S. and the World. Sharon has no intention of making peace with the Palestinians or withdrawing from occupied territories.
For all the military equipment and the $4 billion a year going to Israel, one would expect a leader of even Bush’s intellectual capacity could convince Sharon to cool it and produce a more tangible result than “a framework and path to achieve peace.”
