By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Feb 01, 2005
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday said peace would only come to the Middle East after the Arabs were permitted to satisfy their aspirations of establishing a new Muslim state on ancient Jewish lands.
“I don't think any of us doubt that without a Palestinian state…that can meet the aspirations of the Palestinian people [sic], that there really isn't going to be a peace for either the Palestinian people [sic] or the Israelis,” Rice said.
Rice insisted Israel recognize its need to relinquish much more than just the Gaza Strip in order to make this vision a reality.
Palestine is “within our grasp,” the secretary said from the State Department auditorium.
She failed to address the fact that even before Israel controlled Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, the Arabs were actively engaged in trying to annihilate the Jewish state.
Rice’s comments seemed to further belie Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s chief justification for uprooting the Jews of Gaza.
Sharon has gone to great pains to convince the Israeli public of the need to quit Gaza in order to gain US support for holding on to major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.
He even interpreted a vague letter from President George W. Bush written nearly two years ago as approval for just such a move.
Sharon’s reading of the document, however, has never been backed up by the Bush administration, which, on the contrary, has consistently demanded a total halt to Israeli settlement activity.
Rice’s demand that Israel provide the Arabs with a viable and contiguous state on lands promised to the Jews by the Almighty mirrors every statement made on the issue by Bush.