Does anyone have any doubt that the Neocons surrounding Bush and Cheney are running the country now?
I refer to the news this week that Bush endorsed Sharon's new "plan" to withdraw from Gaza and keep the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. That is much less disturbing, frankly, than the decision to support the Israeli rejection of the Palestinian "right of return"--the right for Palestinians displaced in the '67 war to return to their old homes/property in now-occupied territory.
Every US president since Nixon has rejected this--most suggesting that it is something that should be discussed once other significant progress has been made--for good reasons. In negotiation terms, this is a huge issue. It's simply stunning that the influence of the neocons is so great at this point in the Bush administration that they can set US foreign policy for the last 40 years on its edge.
Now I really begin to wonder whether peace between Israel and Palestine is ever going to be achieved. Any pretense of the US being even-handed in this dispute have simply evaporated.
Posted by artandscience at April 17, 2004 08:10 AM