The Diplomatic Circus

When all else fails at Foggy Bottom, recycle old bad ideas. It doesn't matter who's in office, the same odious ideas keep resurfacing, as though this time it will be different if only we have different people doing the implementation. President Bush is going down this road as well. He's now promising yet more money for Fatah's Abbas - to the tune of $190 million. There's nothing like throwing yet more good money after bad.

Years back, it became all too clear that Arafat was an impediment so when he kicked the bucket, there was the usual signs of hope except that the new thugs were just like the old thugs, only more ineffectual.

There's absolutely no reason to believe that Abbas is any different.

I expect this simply to try and take the issue off the table for the rest of Bush's term in office. The key points are namely: help Fatah while undermining Hamas, chosing the lesser of evils, and saying stuff that he knows can never be carried out because neither Hamas nor Fatah would ever accept anything less than all of Israel as part of their Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Carl in Jerusalem has some interesting stuff about how Olmert went about revising which Palestinian terrorists could or could not be released. It all depends on what "directly involved in terrorist attacks" means.

So much for not releasing terrorists who have Israeli blood on their hands.

UPDATE:
The circus continues, as President Bush calls for yet another regional summit, as though any of the prior efforts have succeeded?

US President George W. Bush was to call Monday for an international conference grouping Israel and some Arab countries in the coming months to restart Middle East peace talks, US officials said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would chair the meeting, which "will happen sometime in the fall," a senior Bush aide said in a preview of the president's scheduled remarks on the Middle East crisis at 1715 GMT.

The talks will include Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Arab countries that recognize Israel and support the creation of a Palestinian state living at peace with the Jewish state, the official said on condition of anonymity.

In a fresh public show of support for the stalled peace process, Bush was to reaffirm his support for the creation of a Palestinian state living at peace with Israel.

If we want a novel approach, how about this one: if an Arab country wants to engage in this kind of diplomacy, they must first open full diplomatic relations with Israel and begin direct peace talks. Getting together a bunch of countries that are still at war with Israel and expecting them to do anything other than gang up on Israel in the hopes of obtaining concessions from Israel does nothing to improve Israel's security situation and prolongs the conflicts.

That none of these countries are willing to do so shows just how institutionalized the hatred of Israel has become and why such talks are doomed to failure. None of these Arab leaders is willing to put their lives on the line to make peace with Israel. There is no Sadat among them, precisely because of what happened to Sadat when he did make peace with Israel - he was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

UPDATE:
It's funny how the blinders are on at Foggy Bottom. While there are concerns that money destined to Pakistan's Warizistan region to fight terrorism may end up in the wrong hands, we already know that the money being doled out to Fatah is going to the wrong people.