Hypocrisy in politics is not an exception, it's the norm. Bush has been taking a lot of criticism for his hands-off approach, but the fact is I don't think we (Americans) have any viable solutions on the table, and a watchful hands-off with appropriate broadcast information makes some sense to me. The critics are going to criticize him and us either way. I think the Clinton-Albright approach did much to enable the current conflagration. They pushed Israel into what looked like a desperate and weak bargaining position, and when the radical Palestinians (including Arafat) had 95% of what they wanted on the table they decided it must be possible to have it all. I don't think Clintons' negotiators had a clue to the middle eastern mind set when it comes to bargaining and image and so forth. Now President Bush has let himself get pushed into sounding "reasonable" about restraint when he's been strong and loud for justice. He's concerned about escalation, of course, and concerned about international opinion. I saw Dan Rather talking a couple of nights ago about how Arafat was winning the public relations battle because people see these images of Israeli tanks smashing into Palestinian houses. DESPICABLE! Who's choosing the images to send to the world? Israel has a big problem with the way they are portrayed in the media -- I saw that too when I visited Israel and our group was caught in the middle of a riot. The Palestinians throw rocks at the Israelis to get the Israelis to respond so that the cameras can broadcast the Israeli resonse. And it's a party, a real high, for the Palestinians who do it.
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