Pomp and Ceremony
November 27, 2007 at 1:34 pm | In International Relations, Middle East | 2 Comments
Down in Annapolis, things seem to be progressing swimmingly. A joint statement read by President Bush and an agreement to conclude things by the end of 2008 — wrapping up the Middle East crisis in a neat little package. Both delegations even arrived by helicopter, which didn’t seem all that necessary, given the one hour drive from DC — but it certainly added to the seeming gravitas of the occasion.
Notice that the joint statement didn’t even mention Jerusalem, which will prevent some of Olmert’s hardline cabinet allies from walking out on him. Yet. But to conclude things by 2009, that — and a lot of other tricky things — are going to have to come out into the open, and that’s going to set all the nutcase extremists packing.
Hopefully the center can hold. I remain skeptical.
Image by Flickr user FreaksAnon used under a Creative Commons License.
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I have to admit that I remain one of the cynics that Ami Ayalon is referring to. Mind you, I’m a hopeful cynic – and only someone who has lived in the region can engage in such contrarianism. It’s Ayalon’s job to have faith in this initiative because a lot is riding on it and who knows better than a former head of the Israel Security Agency – the internal security service tasked (among other things) with countering Palestinian terrorist entities. Perhaps this summit will bolster the very weakened Mahmoud Abbas and give the weary Palestinians an alternative to counter the ground-swell of support HAMAS enjoyed. I’m particularly skeptical however of Syria’s attendance knowing full well that a secret policy goal of the Iran-Syria alliance is to scuttle any and all peace negotiations between Israel and the PA. It’s why HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) receive millions in funding along with operational support from both Tehran and Damascus. The interesting aspect of these talks for me is to see how they affect (if at all) the relationship between Iran and Syria.
Comment by Michael Ross — November 27, 2007 #
Nice photo =D
Comment by freaksanon — December 26, 2007 #