Sour Deal in Gaza

This is what happens when you put an expert on Soviet affairs into a role of Secretary of State who's major challenge is to deal with Islam. She has no experience on the subject and this week she's proved it. While many are cheering this "historic peace deal", I am not optimistic.

The Soviets were generally held to their agreements, such as removing Cuban missles, because of the principle of Mutually Assured Distruction. The Soviet government also ran the show.
Islamic terrorism is different. The leaders are not necessarily linked to the government but usually allowed to conduct their business freely. So it is a lot harder to acxuse the Islamic government of terrorist-related activities. Normally, the Islamic government, like Pakistan, makes a lot of noise that they are trying to "control terrorism," but in reality do nothing. Additionally, even if Abbas has good intentions, he does not have the power to control factions like Hamas.

There are other reasons why our support of Israel has been lackluster. With the Soviet Union, we had no economic interest in the Soviet Union. In Islamic states, economic interests helps to keep our heads in the sand. Our economic dealings with Saudi Arabia gives them a pass for promoting jihad, building mosques across the US, and distributing islamists reading material at those mosques. Our relationship with OPEC/Saudi Arabia affects our dealing with the PLO. Business interests prevent the US from being overtly pro-Jewish, but voters are largely pro-Israel, so government officials try to sit on the fence. At the end of the day, Israel gets the shaft even though we make it seem like real peace is being made.

Bascially what we need is economic divestment from the Middle East. The freer the US economy is from OPEC, the easier it will be to support Israel. This should have begun on September 12th, 2001, but there were too many people making easy money from Saudi oil to let this happen.

While I still think Condi is a smart and capable woman, I don't think she has the experience in this field. I think I'm a capable mechanical engineer, but I wouldn't attempt to tackle an electrical engineering problem. Let Condi work her mojo with the Russians, or even communist China & North Korea, but someone else needs to tackle Islamic. Finally, to all the "Condi in '08" cheerleaders, keep dreaming. She's hasn't even been elected to a city council, so she can't prove her electability, no matter how many books Dick Morris writes.

JERUSALEM - The Israeli-Palestinian pact announced Tuesday to reopen the Rafah crossing, a vital link to the outside world for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, came down to a hotel room, a laptop around which negotiators made last-minute revisions and the determination of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cement the deal in the wee hours of the morning.
Laying her prestige on the line, Rice postponed plans to leave Jerusalem on Monday in the belief that an agreement could be hammered out with her personal touch. She
succeeded.
For the first time, under the agreement, Palestinians will control their own border. The free flow of goods into Egypt will strengthen the battered Gaza economy. It will also give a lift to Mahmoud Abbas, the beleaguered Palestinian leader, in advance of crucial elections for parliament Jan. 25.
The plan sets Nov. 25 as the target date for reopening Rafah terminal, which Israel sealed this summer after its withdrawal of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. The crossing is to be checked by Palestinian and Egypt border guards under supervision by European Union officials.
A key sticking point was Israel's insistence that it be allowed to monitor the
crossing, saying it feared cross-border smuggling of arms to Palestinian militants. Under the compromise presided over by Rice, Israeli and Palestinian security officers at an EU-run control room a few miles from Rafah will monitor the crossing via closed-circuit TV. But the operation of the crossing is no longer under Israeli control.
Passage of people between the West Bank and Gaza is due to start Dec. 15, with bus convoys carrying Palestinians between the territories several times a day. Truck convoys carrying goods are due to start Jan. 15. Israel agrees to the passage of at least 150 trucks a day by the end of the year, and at least 400 trucks a day by the end of 2006.
The agreement permits the Palestinians to begin building a seaport and calls for talks on reopening Gaza's airport, which was damaged in 2001 by Israeli airstrikes after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising. Knight Ridder