And You Were Expecting A Breakthrough?

The New York Times headlines that there were no breakthroughs in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Well, what exactly did you expect when the Palestinian terrorists continue attacking Israel nonstop the entire time that President Bush was in Israel and even visited Ramallah?

Only a fool would have expected a breakthrough, let alone a peace deal to be hammered out in such a public forum. The Oslo agreement was done in backchannel negotiations until it was unveiled to the world in completion, and as we've repeatedly seen since 1993, Oslo isn't worth the paper it's written on since the Palestinians haven't lived up to a single obligation under the Agreement to recognize Israel, stop terrorism against Israel, stop incitement against Israel, and to work towards a two-state solution. No such deal would have happened with this public visit, which is more about showing President Bush doing diplomacy than actually working out a deal. It's about perceptions, and it shouldn't sit well with anyone who thinks that negotiation with terrorist groups is a good idea.

President Bush's statements are just words, but the Palestinians and Arab world at large put special significance to them since he's calling for Israel to end the occupation and withdraw from occupied territories. To the Palestinians, that means all of Israel; they never considered Israel legitimate.

It's one thing to mark the President's words, and it's quite another to mark his deeds. It was a mistake for Bush to visit Abbas in Ramallah. Abbas has done nothing to merit such a visit - the Palestinian Authority cannot stop the terrorist attacks because it is thoroughly dominated by the very terrorists who operate against Israel, despite the hundreds of millions spent trying to prop up the Palestinian Authority against the Islamists in Hamas.

Other pundits and opinionists are weighing in and find that the wishful thinking by Bush and Israeli PM Olmert is troubling (welcome to the party - I've been saying that for some time). Carl in Jerusalem has some choice words for President Bush's "swiss cheese" statement from yesterday.

President Bush will be back in Israel to celebrate Israel's 60th Anniversary, which falls on May 8 this year.

Meanwhile, the UN says that it deplores the katuysha rocket attack against Israel from Lebanon. Yes, that will really tell Hizbullah to stop the attacks. UNIFIL failed once again to fulfill its mandate under UN SCR 1701, and Israel suffers for it.