George Bush addressed the Israeli Knesset yesterday in what might, rightly, be seen as a nauseating speech. Showing the US as virtually joined to the hip with Israel would have gone down like a treat with the Palestinians and many Arab nations. America the honest-broker in any peace negotiations? Hard to imagine!
In his speech Bush had a swipe at those who would engage in talking with terrorists. That has evoked an angry response from Obama who has seen Bush as attacking him.
On another level, Michael Goldfarb, writing in The Huffington Post, "T alking withTerrorists? Happens All the Time" puts the whole thing into perspective and against the reality test:
"There he goes again. George Bush. Talking the talk to create bloodshed where he never has to walk the walk. And scoring cheap political points while doing so.
President Bush calls people who talk to terrorist groups appeasers and implies Barack Obama should wear a Scarlet A where his American Flag lapel pin ought to be.
Well George, what did you call your good friend Tony Blair then? He spent most of the first years of his time in office talking to the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein. And managed to negotiate a peace deal, the Good Friday Agreement, that was approved by the people of Northern Ireland even though the IRA was still armed to the teeth -- most of its weapons purchased from rogue state Libya. You going to call Tony Blair an Appeaser, Mr. President?"
And:
"The planet is covered with terrorist groups, many of them holdovers from liberation struggles of the post-colonial era. They all have political wings set up specifically to do the kind of negotiating Sinn Fein successfully did. If you want to resolve their conflicts you have to talk to them... sometimes on the QT, sometimes through the media, sometimes face to face. But in the end you talk.
You know it, Mr President, and if you don't, in Israel they do. Call up Shimon Peres and ask him about it. Call up any senior Israeli politician, Likud or Labour, and ask them. They spent decades saying they would never talk to the PLO, but in the end they did. Some day, sooner rather than later, they will talk to Hamas. Because peace does not mean justice. Peace means simply the space to breathe. Peace means crimes go unpunished ... but people have space to renew their lives."
In his speech Bush had a swipe at those who would engage in talking with terrorists. That has evoked an angry response from Obama who has seen Bush as attacking him.
On another level, Michael Goldfarb, writing in The Huffington Post, "T alking withTerrorists? Happens All the Time" puts the whole thing into perspective and against the reality test:
"There he goes again. George Bush. Talking the talk to create bloodshed where he never has to walk the walk. And scoring cheap political points while doing so.
President Bush calls people who talk to terrorist groups appeasers and implies Barack Obama should wear a Scarlet A where his American Flag lapel pin ought to be.
Well George, what did you call your good friend Tony Blair then? He spent most of the first years of his time in office talking to the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein. And managed to negotiate a peace deal, the Good Friday Agreement, that was approved by the people of Northern Ireland even though the IRA was still armed to the teeth -- most of its weapons purchased from rogue state Libya. You going to call Tony Blair an Appeaser, Mr. President?"
And:
"The planet is covered with terrorist groups, many of them holdovers from liberation struggles of the post-colonial era. They all have political wings set up specifically to do the kind of negotiating Sinn Fein successfully did. If you want to resolve their conflicts you have to talk to them... sometimes on the QT, sometimes through the media, sometimes face to face. But in the end you talk.
You know it, Mr President, and if you don't, in Israel they do. Call up Shimon Peres and ask him about it. Call up any senior Israeli politician, Likud or Labour, and ask them. They spent decades saying they would never talk to the PLO, but in the end they did. Some day, sooner rather than later, they will talk to Hamas. Because peace does not mean justice. Peace means simply the space to breathe. Peace means crimes go unpunished ... but people have space to renew their lives."
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