One rule remains
Reader comment on item: Throwing out the [Arab-Israeli] Rulebook

Submitted by Robert Arbetman (United States), Jun 18, 2003 at 10:25

Daniel,

One over-riding rule remains in the President's policy: Push for Israeli territorial and security concessions at the behest of the oil lobby and their Saudi trading partners.

Therefore, what may be a surprising break with traditional "rules" is really a new manifestation of the same basic rule that has been in place for several years and several Presidential administrations.

This explains how a President, leading a "war on terror" rewarded Arab terrorists in Palestine with a "vision" of statehood while abandoning his demands for free elections in the PA and leadership independent of Yasser Arafat, etc.

This also explains why the President found it "troubling" that the Israelis would assult a major Hamas leader at almost the same time US forces were mounting a major conventional assult on Iraqi fedayeen.

We are not helping America's war on terror by denying the President's weakness in leadership in the War Against Israel. I think we need to make that issue clear. ..

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