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America in the Middle East

The US, in denial, wants fast track talks to boost Abbas


By Stan Goodenough
June 15, 2007

The Gaza Strip’s violent transformation this week from PA-controlled territory to gunmen-controlled Hamastan will not, according to the leftist Israeli daily, Haaretz, give Washington any pause in its pursuit of President George W. Bush’s two-state solution to the ‘Palestinian’-Israeli conflict.

On the contrary, reports the paper Friday, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now plan to try and “fast track” “peace talks” that will see Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) handed over to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas in order to “boost” his battered standing among his people.

The US “aims to accelerate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to allow Abbas to present some achievments,” Ha’aretz says.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is scheduled to visit the White House next week, “intends to tell Bush that Hamas’ coup d’etat must be contained in the Gaza Strip and not allowed to occur in [Judea and Samaria] as well.”

While many would argue that this is precisely why Israel should immediately shelve any further talk of giving land to the PLO, the US favors exactly the opposite tack.

Haaretz says Washington will urge Israel to reconsider loosening its military grip on the PA-occupied parts of Judea and Samaria, and to unfreeze tax funds being withheld from the PA.

These candies apparently will persuade the Palestinian Arabs that Abbas’ Fatah, and not Hamas, should really be in charge.

Such an approach, as anyone who understands Middle East realities knows, will backfire.

The increasingly popular Hamas is growing its support base precisely because Abbas and his Fatah are seen as stooges of the US.

Any US effort to push ahead with the land-for-peace process in the face of its implosion in Gaza will be looked upon as folly of the worst kind by many in Israel.

As hard as it is to admit the failure of its two-state plan, the mayhem in Gaza, under cover of which the “Palestinians” have successfully established an Islamist terror mini-state, should – observers believe – compel Washington to admit to the bankruptcy of its policy.

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