From THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL, May 8, 2008:
Sixty years ago ...Within hours of the United Nations General Assembly's decision to partition British-ruled Palestine ...Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, whereupon seven Arab armies invaded in an unsuccessful attempt to wipe it off the map. ...When it comes to legitimate Israeli security concerns, the State Department still seems clueless 60 years later.
...it appears that Mr. Bush and Miss Rice have decided to ramp up the pressure on Israel to make life-and-death concessions to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a man whose serial incompetence got him run out of Gaza by Hamas, and whose own security record is shaky at best. ...
... the real-world security implications seem to be overlooked in the Bush administration's bid to obtain a "peacemaking" legacy for itself.
Sixty years ago this month, Secretary of State George Marshall was mucking up Middle East policy in his own way. On May 12, 13 and 14, 1948, for example, Gen. Marshall and aides waged a last-gasp bureaucratic battle behind the scenes in an unsuccessful effort to dissuade President Truman from recognizing the coming state of Israel. Fast forward to today, and Miss Rice (this time with presidential approval) seems determined to pound a weak Israeli government into a series of untenable security concessions. It's a Foggy Bottom tradition that no one should be proud of.
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