Disagree with Pipes

Submitted by Marc Furman (South Africa), Jun 25, 2002 at 12:35

I disagree as it fails in all the fundamentals of "real-world" analysis, and seems to fail in distinguishing between the essence and the periphery of Bush's address.

What does Israel need? It needs security, it needs a free hand to abolish terror, it needs an end to Arafat and the PA. What can Israel live with? It can live with an end to settlements (ultimately), a severely rectricted and fundamentally reformed Palestinian authority (provisional state) recognised by the US, all only after a complete end to terror, incitement and violence from the Palestinians. All this is offered by Bush in his speech. All this is supported by Bush in his speech. All the rest is irrelevant.

Pipes says this speech is "rendered unworkable as a serious effort at conflict resolution". No speech in these circumstances could EVER have been workable as a contribution towards conflict resolution. Conflict resolution doesn't work in cases such as the ME. What works in this case is war. And what Bush has done is righteously reaffirm his support for Israel in its war and make a magnificent contribution (by utilising the the massive power only POTUS has) towards swinging world opinion in Israel's favour.

When my common sense (as well as every right-of-centre publication in the US and Israel) screams at me that Bush has truly risen to the occasion like no time since his speech to Congress after 9-11...

yours truly

Marc

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