Rice in Palestine
Condi met with Abbas, and the usual statements get made:
In Israel, she reiterated the United States' position that a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon must come with conditions, saying there is "no desire" on the part of U.S. officials to come back in weeks or months after terrorists find another way to disrupt any potential cease fire.
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"We are exerting all our efforts to release the Israeli soldier [Corporal Gilad Shalit]," Abbas said, adding that he hoped thousands of Palestinian prisoners would also be freed by Israel."Israeli aggression in the West Bank and Gaza Strip must stop immediately so we can strengthen the truce and start a political process that aims to end the occupation," he said.
Translation: Condi, We're going to wait until Israel hurts Hamas and Hizb'allah enough to keep things quiet for a year. Abbas, Um, they're close to that, can you make them stop? If you give me that, maybe I can trade places back with Hamas, so they can focus on resistance and I can focus on pretending to moderate?
But this is encouraging:
Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian police clashed with hundreds of Palestinians who were holding an anti-U.S. protest outside a government building ahead of the meeting.
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Several arrests were made, and three protesters were injured, protest organizers said.
Anti-US protesters arrested? That's actually a good start.
Comments
Keep your fingers crossed. Abbas is a waste of time. Yawp.
Posted by: Ozzie | July 25, 2006 11:42 AM