The Bush Doctrine, Israel and the Peace Process

Norman Podhoretz’s article in the April issue of COMMENTARY -- “Israel and the Palestinians:  Has Bush Reneged?” -- is essential reading.

The article responds to the Power Line post “The Bush Doctrine Today and Tomorrow” and the JCI post “The Fall of the Fourth Pillar,” both of which argued that the “fourth pillar” of the Bush Doctrine -- the principle that the U.S. would not support establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders had engaged in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantled their infrastructure -- had fallen victim to a new “peace process,” one with immediate Phase III final status negotiations that violated not only the “Roadmap” but the formal U.S. commitment to abide by it.

Late last year Power Line, in “Condi’s Confusion,” called the Bush administration’s efforts to create a Palestinian state a “study in weakness and confusion” that defied “every marker it has laid down.”  On the day the Annapolis conference convened, Power Line published “Send in the Clowns,” and followed up a day later with “When Words Lose Their Meaning.”  The prior JCI posts on this subject include “Bush’s Old Promise and New Plan,” “Stuck in the Tight Sequentiality of the Roadmap” and "Where the Peace Process Went Wrong." 

All of these posts have links to other materials that serve as further background to the issues discussed in the Podhoretz article.

The issues are of critical importance, as the Bush administration prepares to spend its last nine months trying to birth a final status agreement to be implemented by others. We’ll review one of the most interesting points in Podhoretz’s article tomorrow.  The article deserves the widest possible discussion.

Comments

[J. Lichty]

I am not convinced by Podhoretz' response, although I do agree with him that the successive Israeli governments have been equally, if not more culpable in the retreat from common sense.

That is does not save the Bush administration from the charges you and Paul have levied. I look forward to your response.

[willem]

Either there will be peace with a two state solution, or there will be a Roman Solution. That's what this is boiling down to. No Place Left To Hide.

[ytba]

28 YEARS AGO . . .

The Lubavitcher Rebbe said...
link-http://savethelandofisrael.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-israel-govenment-thinks.html

"Is this the sort of peace for which they [the Israel government] goes for, to overlook all [killings]? Absolutely yes! They want to overlook everything, not as is the view of those who mistakenly believe that this will stop at the door to Jerusalem, the Holy City. It is a foregone conclusion that they intend to cede Jerusalem!! They are only waiting for the appropriate moment that the storms will settle, then they will prepare the wording – with the help of several diplomats and politicians, to offer this on such a tray whereby they will speak of incidental irrelevant side issues with no emphasis on the true central issue, that they are giving away Jerusalem the Holy City; and in such a way, that no one will even notice, in order that there will be no complaints [From the farbrengen Motzoi Lag BeOmer 1980]"

And now, 28 years later, we see from the above, and everything else he said, some of which can be found here...
link=http://www.truepeace.org/rebbeview.html
...that he was right all along, and everyone else was wrong.

So, why don't they listen? Why do they dismiss the only person who has been 100% correct, and replace his wisdom with their Shtuss?

Could it be that if they admit he is right about that, they would have to admit he is right about everything else he tells us? G-d forbid! Better be wrong and suffer, than admit something that would require us to change our behavior, even though it would dramatically improve our situation.