ISRAEL MAKES MAJOR SECURITY CONCESSIONS

Rice Wins Concessions from Israel - Matthew Lee
Secretary of State Rice, visiting the region for the second time this month, announced a series of concrete steps by Israel aimed at improving the Palestinian economy. The agreement includes: removing 50 travel barriers in and around Jenin, Tulkarem, Kalkilya and Ramallah; dismantling one permanent roadblock; deploying 700 Jordanian-trained Palestinian police in Jenin and allowing them to take delivery of armored vehicles; raising the number of Palestinian businessmen allowed into Israel; increasing the number of work permits for Palestinian laborers; building new housing for Palestinians in 25 villages; connecting Palestinian villages to the Israeli power grid; and Israeli support for large-scale economic development programs and encouragement of foreign investment. (AP/Washington Post)

THE U.S. WAS "VERY SURPRISED" AT THE EXTENT OF ISRAELI CONCESSIONS.  INDEED, ISRAEL SEEMS TO HAVE AGREED TO SERIOUSLY COMPROMISE ITS SECURITY.  BUT CONDI DIDN'T GET EVERYTHING....

LUCKILY, A CIVILIAN SAVED HIMSELF FROM BEING THE FIRST VICTIM OF ISRAEL'S CONCESSIONS.

RICE HONORS PALI TERROR PROPAGANDIST

Condoleeza Rice Honors a Hizbullah / Fatah Propagandist as a Woman of Courage (IsraPundit)

For International Woman’s Day, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice convened eight women to be honored for the 2008 Secretary of State’s Awards for International Women of Courage ceremony. Of those eight women, oddly enough six were Muslim, as if Muslim women had cornered the market, making the “International” ceremony a rather parochial pat on the back for Muslims.

Of these six Muslim women, one has a rather interesting biography. Nibal Thawabteh. Undersecretary Dobriansky stated that she founded a newspaper, he oddly enough failed to mention its name. The newspaper’s name is Al-Hal and it is produced at Bir Zeit University’s media center where Nibal Thawabteh is also a lecturer.

Al-Hal is actually printed and distributed by Al Ayyam, which is the main mouthpiece of Fatah. Bir Zeit University itself is known as a hotbed for radical terrorism and its media institute benefits from infusions of international funding even as it turns out terrorist propagandists. But if you’re thinking that Condoleeza Rice could not have known all this and might have missed it, Nibal Thawabteh’s own resume available on multiple sites makes her terrorist affiliations incredibly clear.

While much of it has been designed to seem innocuous and appealing to the eyes of Western academics with buzzwords about education and illiteracy, there is this;

Script Writer and Director for Al Manar Satellite. Produced 9 Documentaries about Palestinian related issues 2003

Al Manar is of course Hizbullah satellite television and it doesn’t take much effort to imagine the sort of “Palestinian related issues” they would want as documentaries. Then there’s a stint as a writer and director for Ramattan Studios.

Script writer and director for many films as “The Palestinian Stones ” Ramattan Studios. 2003

Ramattan Studios last came to our attention when it was used as the go-between to release a tape of the two Fox News hostages.

Nibal Thawabteh is also on the Board of Directors of PYALARA. PYALARA is an organ of the PA’s youth organizations and promotes terrorism. She’s had a background in MIFTAH, a hyperactive propaganda outlet.

The best though comes under the heading of Training Experience which I’ll just screenshot as it’s rather straightforward. So straightforward even the dimmest State Department flack would have had no trouble understanding it. Just look at the last line.

In short Nibal Thawabteh has some rather ugly ties. She’s produced propaganda for Hizbullah, works for the Fatah press and has extensive connections to the Fatah political infrastructure. She’s even done political work for Hamas at one point it would seem. That’s a resume that should disqualify her from an invitation to the Benjamin Franklin Room while the Secretary of State holds a ceremony that awards her as one of the eight most courageous women in the world. We’ve gone from Mother Theresa to a terrorist press agent and days after Israel is recovering from a terrorist attack against a school, this award is doubly despicable.

Oh and one final inevitable note. Nibal Thawabteh is a consultant for the Carter Center.

RICE: STOP ROCKETS FROM GAZA FIRST

Olmert, Rice discuss Gaza crisis (JTA)
Ehud Olmert and Condoleezza Rice agreed that stopping terrorist rocket fire from the Gaza Strip takes priority over relieving the Palestinian plight there.

The Israeli prime minister and U.S. secretary of state held a breakfast meeting Thursday in Japan, where their paths crossed during separate official visits.

Rice, who will travel to Israel and the West Bank next week to promote a U.S. initiative for helping the Palestinian economy, told Olmert she was concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza amid a surge in fighting this week.

"I am concerned about the humanitarian conditions there and innocent people in the Gaza who are being hurt. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza," Rice told reporters, referring to cross-rocket attacks by the Islamist group.

"The issue is that the attacks -- rocket attacks -- need to stop," she said.

Responding to stepped-up attacks, Israeli forces killed 18 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in several airstrikes Thursday.

Olmert, who was to fly home later Thursday, indicated that Israel's current priority is crushing the rocket threat rather than relieving Gaza's civilian problems.

"We are at the height of the fighting," he said. "We will make the terrorists pay a very painful price."

Rice Demands End to Rocket Attacks
U.S. Secretary of State Rice, meeting Israeli Prime Minister Olmert in Tokyo, called for an end to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli territory from Gaza. Asked whether she advised Olmert to prevent the military from using disproportionate force in Gaza, Rice said: "I think that's not a good way to address this issue. The issue is that the rocket attacks need to stop.'' Rice will visit Israel and the West Bank next week to help accelerate Middle East peace talks. (Bloomberg)

See also Rice Tells Olmert She's Concerned about Gaza Civilians - Arshad Mohammed
Secretary of State Rice voiced concern on Thursday about Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza, but stopped short of an explicit call for Israel to exercise restraint. "I am concerned about the humanitarian condition there and innocent people in Gaza who are being hurt. We have to remember that the Hamas activities there are responsible for what has happened in Gaza," she said. (Reuters)

RICE: JERUSALEM NEIGHBORHOOD A "SETTLEMENT"

Rice Considers Jerusalem Neighborhood a "Settlement" - Hilary Leila Krieger and Tovah Lazaroff
U.S. Secretary of State Rice told the Jerusalem Post on Monday that the U.S. does not consider it legitimate for Israel to build homes in some Jerusalem neighborhoods located beyond the "green line." Israel, which annexed eastern Jerusalem after the 1967 war, does not equate the capital's Jewish neighborhoods over the "green line" with settlements in the West Bank and does not believe that construction there is bound by its obligation under the road map peace plan. Rice said "the United States doesn't make a distinction" between settlement in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. "Har Homa is a settlement the United States has opposed from the very beginning," she said. Traditionally, the U.S. refrains from describing Jerusalem neighborhoods as "settlements." (Jerusalem Post)

Are Israeli Settlements Legal? (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

• Israeli settlements in the West Bank are legal both under international law and the agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. Claims to the contrary are mere attempts to distort the law for political purposes.
• The various agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinians since 1993 contain no prohibitions on the building or expansion of settlements. As the Israeli claim to these territories is legally valid, it is just as legitimate for Israelis to build their communities as it is for the Palestinians to build theirs.
• The Palestinians are demanding that every Jew leave the West Bank, a form of ethnic cleansing. By contrast, within Israel, Arabs and Jews live side-by-side; indeed, Israeli Arabs, who account for approximately 20% of Israel's population, are citizens of Israel with equal rights.
• The settlements are not intended to displace Arab inhabitants, nor do they do so in practice. According to independent surveys, the built-up areas of the settlements take up about 3% of the total territory of the West Bank.
• The right of Jews to settle in all parts of the Land of Israel was first recognized by the international community in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine. The purpose of the Mandate was to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in the Jewish people's ancient homeland. Indeed, Article 6 of the Mandate provided for "close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands not required for public use."
• Many present-day Israeli settlements have been established on sites that were home to Jewish communities in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in previous generations, in an expression of the Jewish people's deep historic and religious connection with the land. Many of the most ancient and holy Jewish sites, including the Cave of the Patriarchs (the burial site of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and Rachel's Tomb, are located in these areas. Jewish communities, such as in Hebron (where Jews lived until they were massacred in 1929), existed throughout the centuries. Other communities, such as the Gush Etzion bloc in Judea, were founded before 1948 under the internationally endorsed British Mandate.

Quick historical fact for Condi Rice (Elder of Zyion)

But Rice on Monday clarified that the US believes that portions of east Jerusalem are considered to be "settlements" and that Israel must stop building there as part of its commitment to implement the first phase of the road map.

The land that Har Homa is on was legally purchased by Jews from Sheikh Shehade al-Faghuri, through an Arab middleman named Ibrahim al-Dajani, in 1944. (source: Army of Shadows)

RICE: IT'S ALL SHARON'S FAULT

Rice: Sharon's settler ties were an issue (JTA)
Condoleezza Rice said Ariel Sharon's ties to the settlement movement discouraged her from promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In an interview Tuesday with the BBC, the U.S. secretary of state was asked why the Bush administration waited seven years to push hard for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"I've always believed that there is a very important role for diplomatic multilateral engagement, but it comes at the right time," she said. "So for instance, on the Middle East peace process, I don't think in 2001, with the intifada having just been launched and frankly, Ariel Sharon, the father of the settlement movement, having just been elected prime minister of Israel, that there was much prospect for a final-status negotiation. And so we've worked progressively over the years to help build a new foundation, new circumstances and we've now gotten to a place where we can do that."

Rice was national security adviser to President Bush from 2001-2005 before assuming her current role. In that post, she strongly discouraged Colin Powell, Bush's first secretary of state, from brokering Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Sharon, Israel's prime minister during that time, resisted dealing with then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, accusing him of facilitating terrorism.

RICE: HAMAS TO BLAME FOR GAZA CONDITIONS

Rice: Hamas to Blame for Gaza Conditions - Anne Gearan
Secretary of State Rice said Sunday militant Palestinians, not Israel, are to blame for deteriorating conditions in Gaza. "The responsibility for what is happening in Gaza should be put directly on the shoulders of Hamas," Rice said as she flew to Paris for a gathering of world donors to the Palestinians. "It is the policies of Hamas that have led to its own isolation and by implication Gaza as well," Rice said. "Of course we're very concerned, but let's put the blame where it should be, and that's on Hamas," she added. (AP)

RICE CRITICIZES ISRAEL FOR BUILDING ON JEWISH LAND

Rice criticizes Israel on settlement building (Reuters)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel on Friday for planning to build new homes on occupied land in the Jerusalem area -- a move Palestinians say could wreck a peace process Rice helped launch last week in Washington.

"We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn't help to build confidence," the U.S. Secretary of State said in rare public censure of Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

At a news conference at NATO in Brussels after she had met Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Rice added: "There should not be anything which might prejudge final-status negotiations.

"It's even more important now that we are on the eve of the beginning of the negotiations. I made that position clear."

Disputed Jerusalem Neighborhood Built on Jewish Land - Julie Stahl (CNSNews)
Israel's Ministry of Construction and Housing this week invited contractors to bid on a contract to build 307 new housing units in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa.

Har Homa is a neighborhood inside the Jerusalem city limits, at the edge of PA-controlled Bethlehem, that has more than 1,000 dwellings, housing some 6,000 residents.

Har Homa sits on 210 acres of land that Jews purchased from local Arab landowners in the 1920s. It is therefore Jewish-owned land, said Israel Kimhi of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.

David Baker, an official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, said that construction in Har Homa and elsewhere in Jerusalem is not settlement construction, nor is it a violation of Israel's commitment to the first phase of the road map.

There are about 180,000 Israelis who live in neighborhoods like Har Homa that became part of Jerusalem after 1967.

UPDATED: RICE: I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE PALESTINIAN

Rice: I know what it's like to be Palestinian (JPost)

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly said in Annapolis this week that her childhood in the segregated South had helped her to understand the suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I know what its like to hear that you can't use a certain road or pass through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to feel discriminated against and powerless," Rice told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli representatives, according to the Dutch representative at the summit, Franz Timmermans.

"Like Israelis, I understand what it's like to go to sleep not knowing if you will be hurt in an explosion, the feeling of terror walking around your own neighborhood, or walking to your house of prayer," Timmermans quoted Rice as saying, the Washington Post reported.

Rice described her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, during the era of segregation and the killing of four young girls in a bombing at a Baptist church in 1963. She reportedly said the bombing, which killed one of her classmates, helps her understand the fear of terrorism felt by Israelis.

Timmermans also told the Post that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had pleaded with Arab representatives at the summit to stop "treating her like a leper," and questioned why they refused to shake her hand.

The Arab representatives, he added, had treated Livni like she was "Dracula's younger sister."

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday issued a statement denying that Livni had made those comments.

UPDATE: We’re All Palestinians Now (Contentions)
Yesterday the New York Times, pretending that the Israel/Palestine situation is some kind of symmetrical game of Dare, suggested that Condoleezza Rice make more quasi-symbolic concessions to Palestinian negotiators. If they only knew.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly said in Annapolis this week that her childhood in the segregated South had helped her to understand the suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I know what its like to hear that you can’t use a certain road or pass through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to feel discriminated against and powerless,” Rice told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli representatives, according to the Dutch representative at the summit, Franz Timmermans.

I don’t know about Israeli/Palestinian cooperation, but I suspect the Secretary of State has succeeded in uniting Jews and American blacks. Both groups should be outraged, as she’s managed to compare the former to old Dixie racists and the latter to homicidal terrorists. It seems no just cause is safe from association by guilt. One thinks of Jimmy Carter’s campaign to equate Palestinians with the victims of South African apartheid. Now, Rice has (inadvertently, no doubt) harmed the good name of America’s civil rights movement.

Well, how’s this for symmetry? Condoleezza Rice thinks she knows what it’s like to be Palestinian? Some Palestinians claim they know what it’s like to be black. This hateful 2006 cartoon is from al-Quds, a major Palestinian newspaper, and there’s a good deal of similarly vile sentiment in the paper’s stories. We know Secretary Rice offended blacks and Jews. I’m not so sure the recipients of her sympathy welcomed the comparison either.

LADIES' MAN

FIRST MADONNA, NOW CONDI.

WHITE HOUSE CONTRADICTS RICE: HAMAS ARE TERRORISTS, NOT "RESISTANCE"

Spokeswoman calls Hamas 'terrorists' (WND)
The White House has contradicted Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's recent descriptions of Hamas as a "resistance" group by labeling it a terrorist organization.

The confirmation came from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who had been asked about the coming Middle East summit conference in Annapolis, which officials hope will lead to development of plans for a Palestinian state in the Middle East.

"Given that the president has repeatedly said that it's vital that the Palestinians acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, and Saeb Erekat yesterday … refused to acknowledge that very basic fact…" the question began.

"There has been a lot of increasing chatter as we've moved up towards the hopeful date of this meeting. Secretary Rice has been in the region several times, and Steve Hadley has been there, as well. We are working with the parties in order to bring them along to establish a feeling for a meeting that could actually result in a substantive core list of issues that can be worked on in order to get to a Palestinian state. We believe that we are nearly there. And because Secretary Rice is going to the region later this week so that she can help bring them along, let's just let that process play out, because I think that there is good intention on all sides," Perino said.

"But even – I mean, we know the issues that are on the list, we know what the final status issues are, but if there's this very basic refusal to acknowledge a country's right to exist as a Jewish state, how can the parties even talk?" the reporter continued.

"Well, I think that we should hear from President [Mahmoud] Abbas [of the Fatah organization] before making further judgments," Perino said.

Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, then raised the issue of the other organization, Hamas, which took over Gaza from Abbas' Fatah organization and now runs it.

"What about Hamas? Do you really think that Hamas is going to recognize the existence of Israel?" he asked.

"Obviously, Hamas is a terrorist organization and it's just…" Perino said.

"And they rule the – they rule the Gaza Strip, don't they?" Kinsolving asked.

"Well, it's unfortunate – for the way that the – for the individuals that are living under that rule and in Gaza, it is quite a serious situation. We are helping provide – to provide humanitarian relief, and we would like for that region to be able to return to a situation where they can try to…" she said.

"But Hamas is not going to recognize the existence of Israel?" Kinsolving asked.

"I'll let them speak for themselves, but I think they have a track record that would lead you to that conclusion," she said.

RICE AGAIN CALLS HAMAS "RESISTANCE" MOVEMENT

Rice again calls Hamas 'resistance' movement (WND)
4th time in recent months Condi avoids terrorist label in unscripted remarks

JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again referred to Hamas as a "resistance" movement during a meeting with reporters from the Dallas Morning News, WND has learned.

Rice's remarks, transcribed in full on the State Department website, mark at least the fourth time in recent months America's top diplomat has used that terminology for Hamas during unscripted remarks with reporters.

Meeting with his paper's editorial board Friday, a Dallas reporter asked Rice whether supporting democracy in the Middle East was really in U.S. interests, citing Palestinian elections last year which Hamas dominated.

Rice replied: " ... And what you've at least got now in Palestine and what you've at least got in Iraq now is contestation between healthy political forces and more radical forces.

"Hamas loved it when it could run the streets, faces covered, toting a few guns, and no responsibility for what happened to the Palestinian people. They were the great resistance force, and their only purpose in life was to threaten Israel."

Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rocket firings. It's classified by the State Department as a terror organization. The group's official charter calls for the murder of Jews and quotes widely from the anti-Semitic creed, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Rice is currently mediating between Israeli and the Palestinian Authority ahead of a U.S.-sponsored summit later this month at which Israel is widely expected to outline a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank. Hamas officials repeatedly have stated they would take over the West Bank if Israel evacuates the strategic territory.

Rice has at other times referred to Hamas as a "resistance movement."

JUDGE SUBPOENA'S RICE IN AIPAC TRIAL

Judge subpoenas Rice, Hadley for AIPAC trial
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The judge in the trial of two former AIPAC staffers approved subpoenas for top Bush administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley.

The order issued Friday by Judge T.S. Ellis III allows the issuance of subpoenas to 16 of 20 current and former government officials requested by the defendants, Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst.

The government had sought to block 16 of the requests, including those Secretary of State Rice and Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, and allow only four. Ellis overruled most of the government objections, blocking only four relatively minor former officials.

Ellis upheld the defense's argument that proving that the meetings cited in the indictment were part of a routine involving the likes of Rice and Hadley would help prove the ex-AIPAC staffers' innocence in the classified information trial.

"Defendants are entitled to show that, to them, there was simply no difference between the meetings for which they are not charged and those for which they are charged," Ellis wrote, "and that they believed that the meetings charged in the indictment were simply further examples of the government's use of AIPAC as a diplomatic back channel."

Rosen and Weissman have contended that government officials routinely used AIPAC to convey messages to Israel and to other parties, including the media.

Ellis broadened his allowance to include government officials who might have had conversations with other AIPAC staffers when Rosen and Weissman were not present, or even conversations that involved only government officials.

Ellis warned the government that resisting the subpoenas could kill its case: "The government's refusal to comply with a subpoena in these circumstances may result in dismissal or a lesser sanctions."

Among the others on the list, aside from Rice and Hadley, are: Elliott Abrams, the deputy national security adviser and Bush's top adviser on Middle East policy; Richard Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state; and Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary. The government had not objected to four current and former officials who are cited in the indictment. Only one of those four, Larry Franklin, a former Pentagon Iran analyst, has been charged in the case. He has pleaded guilty.

RICE TAPS CARTER, CLINTON FOR PEACE ADVICE

Rice taps Clinton, Carter for Middle East advice (Reuters)
Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.

Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.

Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.

A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.

IN RELATED NEWS, TED TURNER AND KOFI ANNAN HAVE ARRIVED IN ISRAEL READY TO "HELP" WITH THE PEACE EFFORTS.

'We've come here to see if we can help' - Ted Turner - Ted Turner (JPOST)
Less than a week after announcing that Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations, joined its board of directors, the United Nations Foundation has sent a high-level delegation to Israel and Jordan.

The delegation arrived in Israel at 6 a.m. on Sunday and held meetings with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other prominent figures.

Heading the delegation were its chairman, Ted Turner, the founder of the CNN Cable News Network, and Annan.

The UN Foundation tries to build public-private partnerships that address the world's most pressing problems.

"We've come here to see if we can help," said Turner.

"We are here to listen and to see what is going on in the region," Annan told Peres. "Peace is of great concern to all of us."

RICE COMPARES ISRAEL TO SOUTHERN SEGREGATIONISTS/RACISTS

Rice hears gripes from religious leaders (JTA)
Condoleezza Rice met with religious leaders in the Holy Land and heard their grievances.

The U.S. secretary of state, in the region to promote a peace conference she is convening next month, met with Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders on Monday night.

The Washington Post reported that Rice heard grievances about the difficulties Muslims face in reaching Jerusalem holy sites because of Israel security restrictions, and about Israel's refusal to deal with the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. Rice, according to the report, likened the difficulties to her own upbringing in the segregated South.
Rice also paid a pilgrimage visit to Christian holy sites in Bethlehem.

Rice in photo op with 'no-land-to-Jews' cleric (WorldNet)
JERUSALEM – Incensing some officials here, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday met and held a photo opportunity with a man enthroned two years ago as Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem even though Israel won't recognize his leadership.

The Israeli government has withheld support for Theofilos III, elected patriarch in 2005 amid charges of church irregularities, due to his position on canceling the sale to Jewish groups of church land comprising much of a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. Theofilos also has been quoted by church officials as opposing the sale of Jerusalem property to Jews.

ROAD MAP IS DEAD AS U.S. PUSHES PALI DEMANDS DOWN ISRAEL'S THROAT

Annapolis Syndrome (Contentions)
There is an unmistakable tinge of insanity creeping into the U.S. effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It takes form in the embarrassing desperation of Condoleeza Rice, as she countenances the increasing implausibility of the Annapolis conference with ever more florid and urgent declarations of the imperative of creating a Palestinian state. It takes form in the haphazard manner in which the U.S. has jettisoned virtually every requirement arrived upon in previous negotiations, most notably the unannounced dismissal of the 2003 Roadmap. And this creeping insanity takes form most strikingly in the refusal of U.S. strategists to deal seriously with the array of facts on the ground, facts that would undermine any print-on-paper agreements arising from Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Rice arrived in Israel yesterday—her eighth visit in the past year—to continue cajoling her interlocutors toward Annapolis. “Now we are talking about a joint document that will seriously and substantively address core issues. We have come quite a long way. We’ve got quite a long way to go,” she said. Actually, we have not come a long way. Anyone familiar with even the most basic outlines of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking knows that in all but the finest details, everything being negotiated today has been negotiated dozens of times before in summits and conferences and shuttle diplomacy and secret meetings undertaken by every U.S. administration stretching back decades: borders, refugees, Jerusalem, water, security, etc.

I feel safe predicting that the Annapolis conference, putatively only five weeks away, will not happen, or will take place in a highly attenuated form. Every event and indicator is working against it. The Arab states whose attendance the Bush administration has said will be required for the conference to be effective are either on the fence or are actively working to undermine American diplomacy. Saudi Arabia is following the exact same bait-and-switch formula it always has: express interest, wait and see what is in the offing, and then back out at the last minute.

The Saudi behavior is to be expected. But Egypt’s behavior is new and uniquely egregious, and is apparently not being met with any American resistance. While America and Israel have been pursuing an explicit policy of strengthening Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas while isolating Hamas, Egypt continues to counsel a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. Worse, Egypt is strengthening Hamas by allowing the free flow of terrorists and weaponry across their border with Gaza, through a network of tunnels that has dramatically expanded in recent months. The weaponry includes Katyusha rockets that have twice the range of the Kassams that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been firing at Israel. (These missiles represent nothing less than the means by which Hamas will be able to scuttle negotiations at a time of its choosing.) The Israelis have made much of the problem of the Egypt-Gaza border tunnels, but the Egyptians have done absolutely nothing to stop the smuggling. And Rice, swept up in shuttling between Washington, Jerusalem, and Ramallah, can’t be bothered to pay attention to this strategy of sabotage by an ostensible American ally that receives billions of dollars per year in U.S. aid.

Meanwhile, the larger question of what to do about Hamas and Gaza looms unmentioned over the proceedings. Rice has offered a platitudinous and contradictory position that a Palestinian state must include Gaza, but that Hamas, which controls Gaza largely by consent of the governed, has no place in a Palestinian state. Various senescent diplomatic elites have attempted to convince the Bush administration to bring Hamas into the negotiations, but it seems that even if invited, Hamas would refuse—the terror group recently announced its total rejection of the current negotiations, and its charter explicitly rejects diplomacy and conferencing in favor of jihad. The challenge posed by Hamas is so new and so significant that neither Rice nor Abbas has the wherewithal to address it.

What Rice has in fact gone a long way toward accomplishing is a demonstration of the fact that none of the U.S.’s previous diplomatic commitments will be considered of the slightest relevance when it comes to the latest round of peacemaking. Most farcical of all is that the current round of “engagement,” intended in part to restore American credibility in the Middle East by showing the world that the U.S. is willing to heavily invest itself in the conflict, is swiftly establishing the opposite—the same thing that was established in all the previous peacemaking efforts. But at least the Bush administration can come away from all of this knowing that this particular failure was not a unique one.

U.S. DELAYED ISRAELI RAID ON SYRIAN NUKES

Condoleezza Rice opposed Israel's attack on Syrian nuclear site (Times UK)
A MYSTERIOUS Israeli military strike on a suspected nuclear site in Syria last month was opposed by Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, because she feared it would destabilise the region, according to a report this weekend.

Rice persuaded the Israelis to delay their operation, but not to call it off, after US officials were presented with "jaw-dropping" evidence of Syrian nuclear activity, the report said...

According to ABC News, Rice led the opposition inside the Bush administration to the Israeli strike, persuading them to shelve initial plans to hit the Syrian facility in the week of July 14.

Turkish FM to discuss Syria in J'lem (JPost)
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Sunday following a brief visit to Damascus. High on his agenda in Jerusalem will be Israel's air strike on Syria last month and the American Jewish community's stand on whether the World War I killing of Armenians constituted genocide.

Babacan arrived in Damascus on Saturday, and was scheduled to hold talks during his visit there with President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Shara.

His visit to Damascus came as ABC News quoted American officials over the weekend as saying that the IAF raid on Syria was planned for several months and was postponed a number of times due to heavy US pressure.

According to the report, Israel presented US officials with satellite imagery which clearly showed North Korean nuclear technology in a Syrian facility.

According to a US source, Washington officials were astonished by the imagery and by the fact US intelligence had not picked up on the facility previously.

"Israel tends to be very thorough about its intelligence coverage, particularly when it takes a major military step, so they would not have acted without data from several sources," said ABC News military consultant Tony Cordesman.

A different source told ABC News that Israel had planned the strike as early as July 14, and in confidential meetings with high-ranking US officials, debated the appropriate response.

Several officials supported Israel's decision to strike, although others, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, firmly opposed it and offered to publicly condemn Syria for operating a nuclear facility instead.

US officials who initially opposed the raid, according to ABC , apparently feared the negative influence it might have over the whole region.

Consequently, officials in Washington persuaded Israel to push back the raid, but in September, Israel feared that information about the facility might be leaked to the press, and went ahead with the strike, despite objections by Washington.

ARABS SET PRE-CONDITIONS FOR PEACE TALKS

...THEY WANT ISRAEL TO SURRENDER AND COMMIT SUICIDE FIRST.

PA Demands Sweeping Deal with Israel Before Conference - Khaled Abu Toameh and Mark Weiss
The Palestinians will only participate in the U.S.-sponsored peace conference next month if general agreement is first reached with Israel on all the fundamental issues, PA officials in Ramallah said Monday. In addition to the issues of Jerusalem, the borders of the future Palestinian state and the problem of the refugees, the PA was also seeking agreement on water, security and settlements.

One PA official said the Palestinians want a declaration of principles to include an Israeli commitment to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders. "When Condoleezza Rice was here lately, she told us that the U.S. administration was determined to turn the conference into a successful event. She also promised to exert pressure on Israel to soften its position," the official said. (Jerusalem Post)

Assad: Syria Won't Attend If Conference Doesn't Discuss Golan Heights
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the BBC his government will not attend a Middle East peace conference in November unless Syria's concerns regarding the return of the Golan Heights are addressed. (BBC News)

See also Syria Sets Conditions for Role in Peace Talks - Robin Wright
Assad's rejection could play into the Bush administration's preference that Syria not attend unless it moderates its position on several issues, U.S. analysts said. (Washington Post)

ABBAS: OLSO OFFER NO GOOD, WANTS ALL PRE-'67 LAND

Rice says talks 'gaining momentum' (JPost)
The dialogue between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has gained momentum, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to CBS. Rice said that during the last round of trilateral talks, in February, Olmert and Abbas had "barely [agreed] to speak to each other, let alone speak about anything of importance."

The secretary of state also said that support in the Arab world for Abbas was critical and pointed out that Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair's mission had also "helped people focus on the institutions of statehood, the building of capacity to govern."

Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, Rice said that Gaza was not separate from the Palestinian Authority. There aren't two Palestinian [Authorities], Rice said. Rather, she asserted, there was the West Bank and Gaza, and there was going to be a Palestinian state under the leadership of Abbas and PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

At some point, Rice said, Hamas will have to make a choice: "is it prepared to be outside that consensus or not; is it prepared to be outside the Arab consensus or not?"

Meanwhile, Abbas told the Washington Post, in an interview published Sunday, that an offer similar to the 92 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a Palestinian state extended at Camp David in 2000 would not be enough.

He insisted on the pre-1967 borders, speaking ahead of Tuesday's scheduled meeting with Olmert in his Jerusalem succa to discuss a memorandum of understanding on principles for a peace deal.

We will be flexible," said Abbas. "But before 1947, we had 95% of Palestine. In 1937, the partition plan gave the Israelis only part of Palestine. And they were very happy at that time. [David] Ben-Gurion was very happy with it. It didn't work. After that [came] the 1947 partition plan - we rejected this, so we lost... Now, we accept [the pre-'67 borders]." [ED. THERE ARE SO MANY LIES AND MISREPRESENTATIONS IN THESE STATEMENTS THAT I WOULD GET CARPEL TUNNEL SETTING THEM ALL OUT].

He added that like Arafat, he too would have rejected the offer Bill Clinton made at Camp David in 2000. "Ninety-two [percent] is unacceptable to us," Abbas said. ....

Abbas reiterated his government's position that the key to solving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was directly addressing the "final status" issues, including Palestinian statehood, the status of Jerusalem and the right of return for refugees.

Also Friday, Abbas told AFP he thought a final agreement could be hammered out within six months of the November talks.

In his Washington Post interview, Abbas gave a nod in the direction of Vice Premier Haim Ramon's idea of giving the Palestinians parts of east Jerusalem.

"In principle, this is the right direction. The Palestinians should have their own part and the Israelis should have their own part... I say and have always said that east Jerusalem is an occupied territory. We have to restore it."

Asked if he would demand to return to his birthplace, Safed, Abbas said: "This is my right, but how I will use this right is up to me and to the refugees and to the agreement which will take place between us."

"We want to find a permanent solution," added Abbas. "The Israelis want security, and we are in need of independence. We want to bridge the gap during the negotiations."

"We should have a safe passage between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank because Gaza is a part of Palestine... all the Arabs support this vision," he continued.

Abbas said he was not interested in returning to a national unity government with Hamas.

Abbas said Olmert was a sincere and serious leader who wanted to make peace. "I know his internal problems. But he is determined to do something," he added.

In his talks with Olmert, Abbas said, "We tackled all the sensitive issues like borders, refugees, settlements, Jerusalem and security... We have already established the teams that are drafting an agreement about these sensitive issues.

"After the conference, we will start negotiating the details of these issues in order to have a peace treaty," said Abbas.

RICE INVITES SYRIA, OTHER ARAB STATES, TO PEACE TALKS

Key Arab Nations Invited to Peace Talks - Matthew Lee
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that key Arab nations, including Syria, would be invited to President Bush's planned Mideast peace conference this fall and expressed hope they would attend. Formal invitations haven't been issued yet but Rice said it "would be natural" for Syria, Saudi Arabia and 10 other Arab League members looking at a broad peace deal with Israel to participate. "We would hope that the invitations would include the members of the Arab follow-up committee," Rice said. Committee members include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. (AP/Washington Post)

See also "Hamas Planned Attack to Sabotage Peace Meeting" - Yaakov Katz
Hamas is under orders to perpetrate a large terrorist attack in an Israeli city to undermine the peace meeting scheduled for November, senior defense officials said Saturday, hours after a Yom Kippur suicide attack was thwarted by an arrest and the capture of an explosives belt in Tel Aviv. Military sources said Israeli security forces prevented a major attack at the last minute, given that the explosives were already in Tel Aviv. (Jerusalem Post)

RICE HAS HIGH HOPES FOR PEACE CONFERENCE

Rice upbeat on Mideast conference (JTA)
The upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace conference under U.S. auspices will produce concrete results, Condoleezza Rice said.

The U.S. secretary of state, who flew Wednesday to Israel and the Palestinian Authority for shuttle talks, rebuffed Arab concerns that the conference President Bush plans for November will lead to rhetoric rather than progress.

"The idea that somehow the president of the United States would call an international meeting so that we could all have a photo op is very far-fetched," Rice told reporters en route to Tel Aviv.

"I think everyone expects it to be serious and substantive, and everybody expects it to address critical issues. We don't expect anything less," she said. "We can't simply continue to say we want a two-state solution, we have got to start to move towards one."

U.S. officials say that Rice, who will spend just over 24 hours in the region, hopes to prod Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas toward agreement on what to expect from the conference.

Rice Receiving Cold Shoulder from Israel
(IsraelNN.com) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received a cold shoulder from Israel regarding her pressure that Israel sign a final status agreement of principles with the Arab occupants of the Land of Israel (Palestinians), according to Maariv/NRG.

In Rice's afternoon meeting with Tzipi Livni, her Israeli counterpart, Livni told Rice that Israel does not want agreements of principles in the upcoming diplomatic summit with the Arabs, only declarations. "We need to have realistic expectations with regard to the summit," Livni said.

Livni added, however, that Israel was "very interested in the summit's success," and asked for the USA's help in achieving support for the summit from Arab countries.

MEANWHILE, HAMAS TV REFERRED TO RICE AS A, "BLACK SNAKE."