US moves closer to Arabs, further from Israel

By Stan Goodenough
August 01, 2007
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2085

The United States of America Tuesday put its official stamp on the Saudi Arabian plan that calls for Israel's surrender for all time of the land returned to Jewish rule in 1967.

According to a report in Haaretz, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote her signature alongside those of Egypt, Jordan and six Persian Gulf states endorsing the 2002 plan as a foundation for Middle East peace.

With the move, the Bush administration gave Israel yet another shove down the road towards completing its severance from its biblical heartland and the cradle of Jewish nationhood.

The Saudi Plan offers full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.

(Gaza was included in the original draft, but Israel in 2005 already abandoned that strip of land to the Palestinian Arabs who, instead of starting to build themselves a state there, turned it into a haven for terrorists and a launching pad for increased terrorism.)

Rice's signature moved her country a few steps nearer to Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, and a few steps further away from Israel.

On Monday evening, upon her arrival in Jeddah at the start of a regional tour, she spoke warmly about the Arab states who have so long hated and worked to destroy Israel.

"These are our longstanding and close friends and allies. These are strategic relationships that go back decades. And we are really determined to signal our commitment and to provide for the security of our allies. It goes to the stability and prosperity of the Gulf region, which is of great interest to the United States and great interest to our friends."

Newsweek columnist Michael Hirsh_ chief US correspondent Samuel Rosner, compared Rice's statement with one she had made a year ago when she said:

"What you had in the Middle East before was American policies - bipartisan, by the way; it had been pursued by Democratic presidents and by Republican presidents - that engaged in so-called Middle East exceptionalism [in other words, democracy won't work with the Arabs] and was pursuing stability at the expense of democracy."

Concluded Hirsh: "The Bush team seems to have gone from condemning the decades-old US policy of backing the Arab regimes to championing precisely that course."