Rice Plans a Joint Meeting With Mideast Leaders

Condoleezza Rice is proposing a series of meetings between Israel, the US and Palestinian leaders within the next month in the hope of revitalising the moribund road map.

What would make Abbas want to attend such a meeting, where the odds are stacked so spectacularly against him? Why would he wish to meet with Israel and a US adjudicator when it is obvious to all that the US adjudicator is merely an extension of the Israeli negotiating team?

This is being sold as a positive development from Rice's visit to the Middle East.

Ms. Rice was pressed to explain reasons for optimism in resolving an Israeli-Palestinian dispute that has defied both Republican and Democratic administrations — and at a time when the region is roiled with conflict.

“Before we say that this is going to end in frustration, let’s be glad that after six years and a long time that the parties want to engage in an informal set of discussions about the future between them,” Ms. Rice said.

The six year absence of negotiations is a direct result of Bush's stance towards the entire issue of Israel and Palestine and his hope that Sharon could brutalise the Palestinians into submission. Never has any leader of the US been more blatantly on the side of the Israelis as Bush has. Nor is this meeting the result of any sort of change of heart. It is rather the price that the Arab nations have managed to extract in exchange for their support for Bush's plans in Iraq.

“I am very clear that the one thing that you do not want to do is to try to rush to formal negotiations before things are fully prepared, before people are fully prepared,” Ms. Rice said. “But that doesn’t mean that there can’t be progress as we’re moving along.”

This is simply window dressing.

The US and the Israelis are once again bypassing the democratically elected government of Palestine in order to meet with Abbas.

The meeting will produce nothing of any consequence. Why not invite all the signatories of the Road Map to the meeting? Where is Russia, the EU? Why are they not all invited to this love fest?

They are not invited because they might actually put some pressure on Israel, the one thing that Condi is determined not to do.

Bush continues to be Israel's greatest ally whilst simultaneously attempting to play the role of honest broker. Until this fundamental dishonesty is addressed there can be no hope of any break through in the Middle East.

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tag: Bush, Israel, Palestine, Road Map, Condi, Rice