This was our National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, on Meet the Press Sunday morning.
But this is the best chance that the Palestinian people have had for statehood and for an enduring peace for a very long time. Everyone needs to be supportive of what Prime Minister Abbas is trying to do. It was really a quite remarkable statement, that the armed intifadah needs to end. It was a remarkable statement that he accepts that a two-state solution also has to have a place for Israel. He is a remarkable man. He’s put together a remarkable government. And he deserves the support of the entire international community. That is really what Sharm el Sheik and Aqaba were about, is ensuring that support, and we believe that he will get that support, and he will succeed.
The only thing I find "remarkable" here is that Rice can actually go on television and spout this nonsense with a straight face. This was probably the lamest interview I've seen her do to date. And it doesn't come off nearly as lame in print as it did on screen.
But let's look at just part of what she said in the above remarkable excerpt.
Everyone needs to be supportive of what Prime Minister Abbas is trying to do.
I keep on hearing that. You know what I never hear? "Everyone needs to be supportive of what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is trying to do." Funny, that.
It was really a quite remarkable statement, that the armed intifadah needs to end.
But Prime Minister Abbas "clarified" that remarkable statement at his press conference earlier today.
As far as the cease of Palestinian resistance is concerned, he told reporters that such position has been approved by the Palestinian Legislative Council, adding that he did not mean the stoppage of Palestinian popular resistance as that of 1987 uprising”.
And in case your memory of the 1987 uprising has faded, here's a quick refresher course. (Hint: it wasn't pretty, and it wasn't peaceful.)
It was a remarkable statement that he accepts that a two-state solution also has to have a place for Israel.
This "remarkable statement," if you listen carefully, still has no place for Israel as a Jewish state. And Abbas has steadfastly and specifically refused to accept Israel as a Jewish state because to do so would require him to renounce the "right of return" (and would probably also get him killed). Again, in his press conference, he was very clear.
Asked by reporters about Israeli Prime Minister Sharon’s statements yesterday on the Palestinian refugees’ problem, PM Abu Mazen said that his cabinet rejects totally the Israeli reservations including the dropping of the Palestinians’ right to return.
Note, as well, the concluding comment of this article on the official PNA website:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was reported Sunday as saying that he would not allow return of any single Palestinain to Israel (historic Palestine).
So now Israel = "historic Palestine." Which means that the West Bank is . . . what exactly? Chopped liver? (How about "historic Judea and Samaria -- the historic homeland of the Jewish People.)
He’s put together a remarkable government.
This one doesn't even merit a comment. It's theater of the absurd. Theater of the remarkably absurd.
