The Annapolis folly: No handshakes
Logo credit: Ellen Horowitz
The build-up to the letdown continues. I’m talking about the Annapolis Mideast Peace Capitulation Summit. Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, have announced they’ll “grudgingly” attend. But they are already warning they won’t be publicly shaking any hands. Of course not:
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed Friday to attend next week’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.
In a sign of the skepticism, even among close U.S. allies, the Saudi foreign minister cautioned that there would be no public handshakes with Israeli officials at the gathering Tuesday in Annapolis, Md.
Still, the Arab League’s decision to participate marked a success for the United States, which had pushed hard for regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia to attend the conference.
It was unclear whether another key player, Syria, would show up, even though it was part of the Arab League’s collective decision to participate.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his government was waiting to see if the agenda addressed its priority issue — the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. U.S. officials have said Syria would be free to raise any issue it wants.
The meeting will include discussions on a “comprehensive” Arab-Israel peace deal. But it is mainly intended to launch Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after a lull of seven years, and Washington had pushed for a strong Arab presence to show support.
Arab leaders made clear they were on board in part to ensure that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not make any damaging concessions to Israel in any negotiations on a final peace deal. Israel has dangled the possibility of an accord as early as the end of 2008.
The NYSun wisely warns against Clintonian legacy-seeking:
As Mr. Bush and his state secretary near their final year in office, there is a natural tendency to grasp for a legacy. But we have been down that road before, to disastrous effect. President Clinton’s desperation at Camp David demonstrated that a final Arab-Israeli settlement with this Palestinian Arab leadership is chimerical. Better to invest the energy and time of the principals in dealing with the Iranian, Saudi, and Syrian threats, while leaving the details between the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs to lower-level functionaries, and pursuing — at a strategic level — the standing of those Palestinian Arabs who are prepared to place a bet on free markets and liberal democracy.
* * *
Our own hope for Mr. Bush’s final year in office lies with his second inaugural, in which he picked up on themes laid down by President Kennedy, in his own inaugural (as we discussed in an editorial at the time that ran under a the headline “John Fitzgerald Bush.” The most stirring phrases from Mr. Bush’s speech were those that seemed aimed almost directly at the unfree people’s overseas, those in the dungeons who were looking for signs from America that it understood their plight and was on their side. We recall the writings of Natan Sharansky about how he took inspiration from the hard line being pursued by President Reagan. The danger at Annapolis will be in sending the opposite signal, that America is prepared, while people are still in dungeons, to meet with the tyrants who are keeping them there. It may be true that Israel herself is desiring a dialog with its enemies. But quite apart from the workaday details of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Mr. Bush and his envoys will need to be careful of the signals they send at Annapolis, lest dispirit the very partisans of freedom we want to be helping.
***
Dore Gold asks: “Is U.S. Policy Changing on Israel’s Rights in a Peace Settlement?”
At the Jerusalem Post, Ehud Olmert gets a turkey award.
Caroline Glick: American Folly
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- Annapolis: La taza de recuerdo: Si Annapolis falla rompeme! « NUEVA EUROPA
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I’ll just wait for Al Jazeera West (NYT, etc) to tint the facts. Newspapers you would only grab for use with your left hand. Oops, tint–>taint
No handshakes, then I suppose kisses are out of the question.
This is the one issue I just can not joke about. Dialogue with an enemy is nothing short of surrender. Soon we will be negotiating a caliphate in Europe. Then in Canada. This is an outrage!
To arms!, to arms!
Whew! I feel better now.
If I had a million dollars, i would not hesitate to bet, that this summit will fail miserably. Such a waste of time.
Legacy seeking is just one more service the ClinBush administration offers. As we watch, we get to see Condi Rice doing her Mad Albrite impression one more time (and she’s become quite good at it over the years) along with all the other hopeless Peter-Principle State Department eunuchs who view Carter as their moral ideal. This is as gross and nauseating a spectacle as we could ever fear to see. What is so exasperating is not that the Republicans (the Party of Stupid) never learn, but that they are incapable of learning.
Maybe we need a Putin ourselves, or at least a military takeover. Sorry if that offends. Got any better ideas?
It is hard for me to complain that Bush and Rice are selling Israel down the river when Olmert is in the captain’s cabin demanding more steam for the trip over the falls.
Reminds me of the Carter attempts at mideast peace…
Talk about a waste of freaking time! I full expect this peace conference to be a successful as any other (i.e. a total failure).
May we call this mess Bush’s last betrayal (jpost.com/Glick: pre-conference leaked documents show the US firmly backs the Palestinians against Israel).
The Arab arguments always demand land for nothing, and then kill the Jews, push them into the sea. Nothing has changed in this Mideast Peace Capitulation Summit. What should be offered is a Palestinian State in Australia. Already the largest assembly of Palestinians in the world.
It just makes me wonder how stupid are Bush and Condo. A pair of matching hammers in a bag.
There is a Palestinian state it is called
Jersey CityJordan.There are also defense treaties in place that should be honored.
This is such BS.
Does ANYONE in BIG government remember 9-11-2001?!!!The Saudis are NOT our friends.
I am willing to allow the Bush Administration to surprise me for change. There have been threats against this meeting. They must be taken seriously. Annapolis is one of my favorite old cities, I’d hate for something terrible to happen that would be forever associated with that beautiful city. I, for one, will be praying for success. And Michelle, if you are going to cover the meeting, please keep you head down and your eyes up.
Speaking of appeasement, Check out this classic Zuckerman ad .