Bush rebukes Israel over Palestinian "humiliation"

[Scurrilous]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/107861/1/.html

<snip>

"President George W. Bush dealt Israel a rare, sharp US rebuke, calling for a freeze on settlements in occupied territories and an end to the "daily humiliation" of the Palestinian people.

Taking centre stage at the annual debate at the United Nations, Bush also called on the Palestinian leaders and Arab states to renounce ties to terrorist groups and implicitly urged world leaders to cut all ties to Yasser Arafat."

<snip>

"Israel should impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorised outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and avoid any actions that prejudice final negotiations," Bush said.

"Even after the setbacks and frustrations of recent months, good will and hard effort can achieve the promise of the roadmap to peace," he said."

[Blayde Starrfyre]

1. He's sucking up

He needs to world's help in Iraq, and he knows most of the world opposes Israel's crimes. If he wasn't desperate to fix Iraq before the election he'd go right on kissing Sharon's ass.

[denverbill]

2. Or what? You forgot the 'or what' part Boy George.

Maybe you should threaten to take away, say, $1 billion in military aid that we are giving them per year. I know it's only a drop in the bucket of what we give them, but if you don't have a stick, the least you can do is threaten to take away part of the carrot.

[The Crystal Method]

3. Interesting.

"Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who intimidate opposition, tolerate corruption and maintain ties to terrorist groups," he said. "The long suffering Palestinian people deserve better."

Interesting that he would care about the 'long suffering Palestinian people' yet still supply with the Israeli government with weapons to make them suffer by. Quite illogical.

Without naming Arafat, who he has tried to exclude from the peace process for two years, Bush said, "world leaders should withdraw all favour and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays their cause."

Extremely interesting, because if it were not for Arafat, Israel wouldn't have the perfect scapegoat, with which to blame any resistance they incur while parading its military around in the Occupied Territories. Now, with that said, the PA is a very badly run outfit and stinks of corruption which is, in my view, exactly what Israel needs to continue their occupation. Forget all the talk about 'removing' Arafat. It's mostly talk. They need him as much as he needs Israel. It may sound a little weird, but moderates have been looked down upon by both Arafat and the leaders of Israel because, by golly, we couldn't have an end to the conflict where Israel gets more land and Arafat gets more money. It just wouldn't be right.

"Israel should impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorised outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people and avoid any actions that prejudice final negotiations," Bush said.

Settlement freeze? Those same settlements that are illegal? But of course, we have natural growth Mr. Bush so please dispense with the 'freeze' rhetoric. Unauthorized outposts? Most are illegal by Israeli law and all are illegal by international law but I hate to be picky.

Avoid any actions that prejudice final negotiations? That's been done quite a long time ago. But who's keeping track?

Those who would lead a new Palestinian state should adopt peaceful means to achieve the rights of their people, and create the reformed institutions of a stable democracy."

The peaceful Palestinians are usually the ones being jailed and assassinated (usually). It's also kind of silly to expect a people who are under occupation and have their infrastructure razed daily by the occupying power to 'create a stable democracy'. Such an environment is not conducive to building a democracy.


"For too long many nations, including my own, tolerated even excused oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability," Bush said.

This is almost too ironic to comment on. We helped with the installation of many of the 'oppressive' dictators. Now we want them all to have 'democracy' so Israel's strategy for securing the realm will not be hindered.

[geek tragedy]

4. Insincere token language to pander to world opinion.

Did anyone believe him? Didn't think so.

[hansolsen]

5. Bush makes political noises for political purposes. Nothing more and

nothing less. By the way -- how many people in this forum still think the war in Iraq is good for Israel??