First time I disagree with Mr. Pipes

Submitted by Yvette Smith (United States), Aug 15, 2005 at 22:04

Mr. Pipes says that:
This step is the worse for being self-imposed, not the result of pressure from Washington. When the Bush administration first heard in December 2003 that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had unilaterally decided to pull all soldiers and civilians from Gaza, it responded coolly. Months of persuasion were needed to get the White House to embrace the initiative.

This is not true. Pres. Bush pushed and pushed Ariel Sharon to create a Palestinian state for the "Road Map" from the beginning. It was already apparent in 2000 when Sharon told Bush that Israel will not be another Czechoslavakia. You know Bush told him to sacrifice a piece of land for the Palestinians back then. So to say that Bush was cool about the idea is a totally false. The pressure on Sharon was immense from Bush, though not said directly, you could see from Colin Powell and Ari Fleischer's comments on how Israel has to do everything it can to bring peace to the region. It was all on Israel's shoulders. So to even believe that the White House had nothing to do with it is only fooling yourself.

Yvette Smith

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