Bush Vows to Ride Herd on Mideast Foes

"Deal" with the settlement issue, I'm guessing, means "find some new way to placate international law and continue developing them".

I suspect that what Sharon will do is pull the troops back, saying I'm unwilling to defend these illegal settlements. They'll be a massive attack when the troops are gone but the settlers don't leave giving Sharon to say, see told you it wouldn't work and allowing him to crack down on the palestinians with impunity.

I heard Sharon speak a few years ago when I was in Israel, and I must say, the tone of the rhetoric has changed for the better.

If Bush solves this problem, I think my head will literally explode from confusion.

Lastly, they have avoided speaking of Jerusalem... my thought: make it a city-state within Israel that can benefit from the economic stability of the country (the historical, cultural and aesthetic value of the city, even without considering religion, is so great that I worry about leaving any part of it to the vagaries of a new Palestinian economy that has not developed yet) while still allowing for a more even distribution of power amongst various groups (of course, if Palestinians are given the right to return and become citizens, which will change the electoral makeup considerably, the above may become redundant).

In general, i think there can be some disagreement over Israel's right to exist as a religious state, but as a democratic one, they are surely preferable to most states in that region.

I think the invasion of Iraq has given Bush a great deal of leverage with Sharon that was missing previously. A lot of it also comes down to timing, as most agree - I can't imagine how draining 32 months of constant violence must be, for both sides. A lot of the perceptions of progress are also based on Bush dealing with Abbas rather than Arafat, and the "approval" of other Arab leaders over the current plan - none of which matters for much as long as Hamas rejects it.

I've been really enjoying Bush's cowpoke metaphors - I think calling the 9/11 hijackers "folks" was what won me over. He needs to go more baroque with them, more over the top, really mix them up.

welllll... contiguous and with an external border? contiguous and with control over its water resources? contiguous and on the whole of the West Bank & Gaza Strip? etc.

by the way, do you reckon when they talk about a contiguous Palestinian state, are they proposing to cut Israel in half to join up the West Bank & Gaza? I think this would be a great idea.

a: both leaders are pissing off their constituents by even trying something like this, something that would not have even been discussed a few years ago.

if anyone believes that history automatically taints or even contradicts every prospective action that either of these two nations could take (in future), they simply have an axe to grind, and are not interested in any sort of resolution.

(x-post w/ Aaron)

I wish I wasn't this pessimistic because it'd be nice if indiscriminate acts of violence could be reduced so more of my friends don't have to die.

i seriously doubt that the current bush squatting in the oval office has that kind of guts when dealing with the israelis (esp. not with karl rove whispering "you gotta get the jewish vote!" in his ear, not to mention that i think that dubya's enough of a moron to go for the end-times horseshit peddled by the jesus freaks).