You have to believe how weak the US is in the Middle East when the administration claims that winning support from longterm US-aid-recipient Egypt for its latest Palestinian-related initiative is actually some kind of an achievement.
In that NYT account, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit is quoted as saying of Condi Rice:
- ”She says that she is determined, and the president of the United States is determined to have a breakthrough during the remaining year of this administration… We have to believe them. I cannot doubt them.”
Precisely. This very precarious, fin-de-regime government of Egypt apparently judges that it has little alternative but to profess ¨belief¨ in Condi Rice.
However, forty years and four months after the start of Israel´s occupation rule over the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan, Rice still says she doesn´t ¨believe¨ in a timeline for getting a final-status agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Syrian tracks.
So how many more decades does she want these occupations to run? How many more illegal settlers does she want to give Israel time to implant into the occupied lands?
A late-term dedication to “solving” the IP problem has become a meaningless but very predictable White House ritual, like the encore at a rock concert. When they announce this as a “top priority” for the remainder of the term, it means they have accepted lame duck status. Probably a good sign overall.
very clever post!
This very precarious, fin-de-regime government of Egupt
Helena, did you read this by Abizaid?
“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”
Abizaid said the current strategy was failing because American armed forces are not adequately supported by civilian branches of government.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/10/15/roundtableDebatesEnergyIssues
The Bush administration goal for this “peace conference” is still merely to: 1) set up an anti Iranian coalition with moderate (read totalitarian and apartheid) regimes in the middle east, and 2) to get a photo op with Israel and Saudi Arabia sitting at the same table. No Palestinian leader can accept the minimum Israeli/Bush terms and survive.
Jack: You are right about the peace conference…I read that Syria will likely not attend, due to Israel’s recent “secret” air attack(mugging). Read Uri Avnery’s column of the last week or so in Counterpunch…he offers a chronological study of Israel’s successful scuttling of every attempt ever made to settle (by something more polite than genicide of the Palestinians or deportation of that population to (middle of a desert on the back of trucks?) the problem of Israel’s land grabbing ways. Ruth Wilson
Jack: You are right about the peace conference…I read that Syria will likely not attend, due to Israel’s recent “secret” air attack(mugging). Read Uri Avnery’s column of the last week or so in Counterpunch…he offers a chronological study of Israel’s successful scuttling of every attempt ever made to settle (by something more polite than destruction of the Palestinians or deportation of that population to (middle of a desert on the back of trucks?) the problem of Israel’s land grabbing ways. Ruth Wilson
Rice is clueless. She was humiliated by Putin this week while on the same stage. So much for her area of expertise. America’s strategic position is in crack up mode.
It is little appreciated, as of now, how intimately this is linked to the fragile nature of the world financial markets. America and Wall Street engineered the system of unprecedented credit expansion and wildly unbalanced trade, which has resulted in rolling bubbles in financial assets and now, finally, in goods, like oil. The world has been stuffed to the gills with crappy debt assets denominated in a crashing currency. They are sick of it but at the same time still prisoners of the system.
Everyone is hoping against hope that things will somehow work out without a major dislocation and freeze up of the markets. It very well might but the come down is going to be a much poorer US. A much poorer US is a much weaker US.
So much for her area of expertise.
There is real doubt now for her area of expertise. what she have achieved before.
Looks to us she was one of US official they just involved in that scenario setup to demolish SSR, she found some who control the power in SSR were happy to handover the Soviet Union for their personal goals who were doubly they cared about SSR citizens and their future.
Well, for US to get Egypts support at this moment is perhaps not at this point a big acheivment, but maybe it got harder since Sadat-times? And it will definitely get harder if the Muslim Brotherhood manage to navigate themselves into a position where they can no longer be harassed and neglected. Maybe Rice is only happy that she’s still able to get the Egyptians on the bandwagon at all?
Tanks for an excellent blog!
On the subject of women and their achievements, I wonder if you have seen Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy statement in the latest issue of “Foreign Affairs.”
After all, Hillary is the juggernaut candidate in the 2008 presidential race. She faces no real rival on the Democratic ticket – unlike the other side where at least 4 candidates bicker with each other on a very weak GOP ticket.
Lots of good things in Hillary’s FA statement.
I noticed that Barack Obama recruited Zbigniew Brzezinski as his foreign policy advisor, while Hillary drafted Albright. How do you read the likely shape of Middle East policy in the next Clinton White House? Any chance team Cobban-Quandt will have a hand in shaping the process?
I am interested in hearing your view of this beltway politics. Has the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis opened the way for a new Clinton team that can be independent of the Lobby, and truly even-handed on the Palestine-Israel conflict? Or are we likely to get the same people among Albright’s associates … Dennis Ross/Martin Indyk/etc.?
“Lots of good things in Hillary’s FA statement.”
Such as what? Staying in Iraq? Bombing Iran? Pretending to be an “honest broker” while making sure that the spoiled brat Israelis are able to get away with their crimes against humanity?
“Hillary drafted Albright. How do you read the likely shape of Middle East policy in the next Clinton White House?”
A lot like the last Clinton White House would be my guess. How nice that Hillary will be able to complete the Iraq circle begun by her husband’s predecessor, brought so far along the way by her husband, and nearly completely closed by Bush II.
“Has the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis opened the way for a new Clinton team that can be independent of the Lobby, and truly even-handed on the Palestine-Israel conflict?”
Few people have more clearly shown themselves to be in thrall to “the lobby” than Hillary Clinton, except perhaps her husband’s vice president, who use to get teary eyed with love during his annual speeches at the AIPAC convention. It is difficult to see how Walt-Mearsheimer could change that significantly.
Agree 100%. Even when buying support from Egypt and Turkey, the underlying cultural and philosophical
background in these muslim “partners” is so antithetical to the US that it is a miracle when
the bribes work. You can’t buy long term friends and we should all know that. Know who our friends are. Egypt and Turkey are not, and these are the good ones…
Oh goody! Our resident ummologist has weighed in with his/her very predictable “clash of civilizations” view.
Sd asked quite a few questions. Another was:
“Any chance team Cobban-Quandt will have a hand in shaping the process?”
Doris – who are our friends?
““Any chance team Cobban-Quandt will have a hand in shaping the process?””
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
More like a satirically ironical question.