The "linkage factor"
A message from Ray Close.
Subject: The "linkage factor"
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:46:55 EST
From: Ray Close
(1) From an article in the 11/30/06 Washington Post about Condi Rice's
planned talks with Palestinian leaders today:
The renewed emphasis on Middle East peace marks a shift for the Bush
administration. Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, some
neoconservatives predicted that the fall of Saddam Hussein and the
establishment of an Iraqi democracy would help foster peace in the
Middle East, arguing that in effect the road to Jerusalem traveled
through Baghdad. Now, experts say, the administration is acknowledging
that the path toward stabilizing Baghdad leads through Jerusalem.
A senior State Department official, briefing reporters Wednesday
night, said he felt uncomfortable with the nostrum that solving the
Israeli-Palestinian crisis could be achieved by toppling Hussein - and
with the idea that the plights of Iraq and the Palestinians were still
linked. “I don’t like the idea of lumping these things together,” he
said on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the State
Department.
Still, the official acknowledged that there was a “core of moderate
Arab support” for action on the Israeli-Palestinian front and that the
administration was trying to exploit that.
( Collapse )
Subject: The "linkage factor"
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:46:55 EST
From: Ray Close
(1) From an article in the 11/30/06 Washington Post about Condi Rice's
planned talks with Palestinian leaders today:
The renewed emphasis on Middle East peace marks a shift for the Bush
administration. Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, some
neoconservatives predicted that the fall of Saddam Hussein and the
establishment of an Iraqi democracy would help foster peace in the
Middle East, arguing that in effect the road to Jerusalem traveled
through Baghdad. Now, experts say, the administration is acknowledging
that the path toward stabilizing Baghdad leads through Jerusalem.
A senior State Department official, briefing reporters Wednesday
night, said he felt uncomfortable with the nostrum that solving the
Israeli-Palestinian crisis could be achieved by toppling Hussein - and
with the idea that the plights of Iraq and the Palestinians were still
linked. “I don’t like the idea of lumping these things together,” he
said on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the State
Department.
Still, the official acknowledged that there was a “core of moderate
Arab support” for action on the Israeli-Palestinian front and that the
administration was trying to exploit that.
( Collapse )
