Arabism Uber Alles?

After raising hopes early in his presidency that he recognized Israel as a close, vital, front-line ally in the GWOT (and has been for, oh, about fifty-seven years), George W. Bush has succumbed to the mind-deadening Arabism that permeates Foggy Bottom. The catalyst for this depressing regression can apparently be traced to the demise nearly a year ago of Yassir Arafat - whom Dubya didn't trust - and his succession as PLO Chieftain (you'll forgive me if I don't dignify the "office" by its sophistic official title "Palestinian Authority president") by Mahmoud Abbas, the outwardly telegenic, genial, "Arab Dick Van Dyke" fellow on whom Bush has performed his Karnakian heart-vision trick and determined is worthy of all the ill-advised feting his predecessors lavished upon Abbas' not-so-telegenic predecessor.

The two men had a high-level White House summit this week that Brother Trunk examines at length today. In their public Rose Garden press conference, the President (Bush, that is) treated Abbas like he was a legitimate head of a legitimate state instead of besieged leader of one terrorist faction desperately battling rival terrorist factions for control of a lawless patchwork territory wracked with anarchy, anti-Semitism, and a belief in war to the death with its Israeli neighbors.

These Bush passages in particular caught my eye:

It's important that we make quick progress on the issues that [Quartet Special Envoy] Jim [Wolfensohn] has identified as most critical for the Palestinian economy, including opening the Rafah crossing, connecting the West Bank [and] Gaza, improving the ability of Palestinians to travel in the West Bank, and beginning work on the Gaza seaport. These are all practical steps that will help the Palestinian economy grow and flourish.

And, as Trunk observes, all practical steps that will have to be extracted from Israel. His question - is there any prior or reciprocal obligation on the part of the Palestinian Authority? - is so obviously rhetorical that that is probably why Bush didn't bother addressing it.

This next graf is choice:

In the short-term, the Palestinian Authority must earn the confidence of its peoples, by holding elections and having a functioning government that delivers economic opportunity. The Palestinian Authority must also earn the confidence of its neighbors by rejecting and fighting terrorism.

"What planet has he been living on?", or similar exasperated queries, have been arising frequently in my mind about President Bush over the past month or so. It sure applies here. Does Bush even know what's happening in the West Bank and Gaza? He's the POTUS, so you have to think he does. So what explains this brain-dead double-talk? No government will ever earn the confidence of the Palestinian people that doesn't embrace terrorism and total, permanent war against the Jews. The reason Abbas' so-called regime is in such shaky shape is precisely because Hamas and Islamic Jihad (and, in Gaza, al Qaeda already as well) are more fanatically committed to jihad than Abbas' Fatah faction. The very act of Abbas going to the capital of the Great Satan and meeting with the "devil" discredits him in Pals' eyes. Hold legitimate Palestinian elections and Abbas would lose a helluva lot more than just his "presidency."

I guess that partially explains Bush's deference - Abbas is, in the State Department's endlessly facile reasoning, the "moderate" Palestinian they can "do business with" as compared with the "extremist" alternatives. All in the not-so-"seemingly" endless pursuit of a phantom "peace" that somehow always remains, like a mirage, just out of the diplogeeks' grasp.

Bush's requirements for his erstwhile Israeli "friends" had a distinctly non-deferential tone:

Israel must continue to work with Palestinian leaders to help improve the daily lives of Palestinians. At the same time, Israel should not undertake any activity that contravenes its road map obligations, or prejudices the final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. This means that Israel must remove unauthorized posts and stop settlement expansion. It also means that the barrier now being built to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks must be a security barrier, rather than a political barrier. Israeli leaders must take into account the impact this security barrier has on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.

If you're keeping score, that was four "musts" in a single paragraph, and really five, since the part about contravention of "road map obligations" didn't sound like it was meant to be optional either. All of them concessions that the Bush Administration demands Israel make, while requiring no preconditions from the Palestinians.

Well, okay, he dropped two "musts" on the Pals (see above). But they weren't prerequisites, but really "urgings" to be undertaken while the Israelis are busy braiding their own nooses.

That's the impression Abbas, and the Trunk, seem to have:

What in turn does Abbas have to say? He celebrates his role in facilitating Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He demands further concessions from Israel and has the temerity to add "also a very important sensitive issue, which is the release of prisoners of freedom from Israeli jails." And, oh yes, "the establishment of an independent, democratic Palestinian state, on all the territories occupied in 1967." In short, Abbas seems to have in mind the strengthening of his hand for war.

"Prisoners of freedom" translates to "terrorists," except, apparently, in the White House. The latter Abbas quote needs no interpretation, since a democratic Palestinian state means a terror regime, and an Israel reduced to the pre-1967 frontiers would be militarily indefensible.

This direct Abbas quote is more of the same:

Peace requires a departure from the policies of occupation and the adoption of the principle of freedom [to murder Jews]. Peace requires departure from the policies of settlements construction, the collective punishment, unilateral acts that undermine your vision toward two states and replace that with progress towards negotiations [years of which have accomplished nothing except facilitation of the systematic murder of Jews]. Peace and security cannot be guaranteed by the construction of
walls, by the erection of checkpoints, and the confiscation of land, but rather by the recognition of rights [like the "right of return," which would inundate Israeli Jews in their own country with foreign enemies bent on their genocide].

Peace cannot be attained by the enforcement of discriminatory road policies and by the policies of imposition and creation of facts on the ground, but rather through belief in the principles of partnership, parity and mutual respect [which Abbas would use to finish off Israel and murder all the Jews].

The policies of "occupation," "settlement construction," "security walls," "checkpoints," "discriminatory road policies," etc. are grounded in a desire for Israeli national survival and the protection of the Israeli populace from wanton, systematic acts of terrorist warfare. Things that Mahmoud Abbas, at best, is powerless to stop, and, in all candor, has no desire to.

And neither, it would seem, does George Bush.

UPDATE: Or does he? This Debkafile report paints a very different picture of the two men's private meeting than their joint public statement:

The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas did not get much chance to lay down his usual list of demands and gripes in his talks at the White House with US President George W. Bush Thursday, October 20. Instead, in contrast to the jovial mood of their joint news conference, Bush crushed his visitor’s hopes of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. “Not during my term,” the President declared firmly, according to DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources Washington....

He informed Abbas that to achieve statehood, they must meet three categorical conditions:

A. A Palestinian state must live in peace with Israel.

B. Peace alone is not enough. The Palestinians must demonstrate they are capable of being good neighbors.

C. The Palestinian state must be clean of terrorism.

"As matters stand now," said Bush, "I see no prospect of Palestinian statehood coming into existence before I leave the White House."

The US president said he continued to support the Palestinian leader. However, his terms were the reverse of what Abbas wanted to hear.

1. Final-status negotiations must not begin yet. (This knocked on the head Abbas’ most cherished goal which is to skip the road map preliminaries and jump to the final stage.)

2. Washington is holding back the timeline for progress towards Palestinian independence. (This was a stunning setback for Abbas’ plans and his standing at home.)

3. The Middle East road map for peace will not for now be activated. It will remain on paper as long as Palestinian “armed gangs” are in charge.

Debka's conclusion?

Clearly the US president has taken several steps back from his first concept of Palestinian statehood as a top American policy goal. He is leaving it to the Palestinians to make the running. For the first time, they have been put clearly and firmly on notice that as long as they harbor terrorists, they can forget about attaining their own state.

If this is so, one wonders why the President then went before reporters and donned that Arabist mask. Why does he continue to flog the Israelis publicly while keeping his backhanding of the Palestinians under wraps? To prop up Abbas? He's already weakened, and not granting his entire laundry list will only weaken him further. Could that be the Administration's goal? To undermine Abbas until he falls and Hamas or IJ take power, providing the Israelis the excuse to send in the IDF to "cleanse" the West Bank and Gaza once and for all? If statehood is not in the offing anytime soon, that would certainly leave a buffer of time to try and deprogram Palestinian culture of its decades of training in hatred and violence. And it would certainly explain why the White House was so in favor of the evacuation of Gaza.

Doesn't gibe well with Occam's Razor, though. Ditto continuing to pressure Israel to commit piecemeal national suicide.

Maybe Bush learned something from the raping and ransacking of Gaza synagogues and other abandoned Jewish properties. Unfortunately, it would seem that that something wasn't nearly enough.