Mental State

I never thought I would ever say this about an Israeli leader, but I guess the adage really is true - some people never learn:

A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that his government would support a division of Jerusalem, which is reportedly a key component of an Israeli-Palestinian declaration to be made at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference next month.

As part of recent negotiations between the sides, Deputy Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon has proposed turning over many of the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Ramon said the Palestinians could establish the capital of a future state in the sector of the city, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

In return, Israel would receive the recognition of the international community, including Arab states, of its sovereignty over Jewish neighborhoods and the existence of its capital there, Ramon said.

On Monday Ramon said even hawkish elements of Olmert's coalition, like Cabinet Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu Party, would back such an Israeli concession. The centrist Labor Party would also support the proposal, Ramon said.

Gotta point out a few details the AP typically omitted:

1) The Jews captured East Jerusalem in the Six Day War, but only after being attacked by all their Arab/Muslim neighbors combined. If the IDF hadn't struck pre-emptively, Israel would probably have been overwhelmed, if the Yom Kippur War of six years later is any guide.

2) When IDF forces reached the Wailing Wall, they wept along with their commander, the famous Moshe Dyan. "We have returned to our holiest of holy places, never to leave her again," he vowed tearfully. The Temple Mount, where the last vestige of Herod's temple is located, is in East Jerusalem.

Whether it's being included in the Arab neighborhoods referenced in the quote above is unclear. One would suspect not if even "hawkish elements" of the Israeli government are willing to buy into Ehud Olmert's appeasenik insanity. But at the rate the will of that little country is deteriorating, it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

3) Since when is the Labor Party "centrist"?

4) Of what value would "international recognition" be to a Jewish State that had let itself be pruned back to the very indefensible borders that necessitated their having to strike pre-emptively in June 1967 to avoid annihilation, which gave them all of Jerusalem and the West Bank in the first place?

How bass-ackwards is this "peace at any price" mania? Read this and weep:

Arab nations had approached the US peace conference with some skepticism. Several have hesitated to attend, claiming that a conference with no practical results would be worse than no conference at all. Condoleezza Rice and Olmert needed to show some significant potential for progress to convince them to attend. [emphasis added]

Does anybody besides me understand what a favor "moderate" Arab regimes were doing ourselves and the Israelis by this skepticism? Does anybody besides me realize how thoroughly our SecState and her Foggy Bottom stooge have squandered that favor? And doesn't this show how utterly the Arabs are in the driver's seat for this so-called "peace conference," and how much they know it? What's left to be negotiated if your enemies are so desperate for a piece of paper to wave around that they'll give up almost everything just to get you to show up?

This quote from another AP blurb hammers the point home gratuitously:

Secretary of State Condoleezza said Monday it was "time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," and described Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts as the most serious in years.

An international peace conference expected to take place in Annapolis, MD, in November has to be substantive, Rice said at a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op," she said.

Israelis and Palestinians, Rice added, are making their "most serious effort" in years to resolve the conflict.

"Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," she added. [emphasis added]

Sounds to me like she's already delivered the goods to "President" Abbas. Makes me wonder why the Israelis are even bothering to attend, as their resemblance to Czechoslovakia in 1938 grows ever more striking. Tell me again how Secretary Rice and the government for which she speaks is serving as an "honest broker" in this shindig?

It looks to me like the ultimate Palestinian "triangle offense," in the form of this past summer's "civil war" between Hamas and Fatah, is working like a charm.

In case you think I'm being too cynical, I refer you to this story:

Israel views the plot by Palestinian militants to kill Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and especially the fact that the potential assailants were released after their initial arrests, with utmost severity, a senior political source in Jerusalem said Sunday.

The source added that the Prime Minister's Bureau has submitted a harsh protest to Abbas' office, and Israel expects the PA to take action on the matter. Labor Party minister Ami Ayalon said that, in response to Diskin's report, he had decided to cancel a scheduled meeting with PA Prisoners' Affairs Minister Ashraf Al-Ajrami in protest of the PA's conduct....

National Religious Party Chairman Zevulun Orlev called on Olmert to "immediately halt his contacts with Abu Mazen [Abbas] and announce the cancellation of the summit as long as Abu Mazen continues to provide cover for terrorists."

National Union MK Aryeh Eldad added that, "Olmert must recite the traditional blessing, for having been saved from an assassination. Abu Mazen should recite a blessing for having a partner like Olmert, because anyone else would have cut off negotiations long ago, and the State of Israel should say a blessing for getting rid of Olmert."

National Union MK Zvi Hendel said that Olmert should be examined "by the best professionals, because a situation in which the prime minister is willing to meet with those who freed terrorists that tried to assassinate him, is not politics but rather insanity."

Kadima MK Zeev Elkin urged the prime minister to "freeze all talks on gestures to Abu Mazen until the members of the cell are taken back into custody and tried."

National Union MK Effi Eitam said "Olmert must awaken from the pointless dream of a moderate partner in Abu Mazen."

But, frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Riiiiiiiight.

Looks like even the "doves" are backpedaling now.

How I wish I could believe that it'll stay that way.