Appeasers!

By Cernig

It looks like the Arab Street, like the Israelis, didn't think Bush was talking about appeasement mainly to score cheap domestic political points.

Egypt's state-owned press opened fire Saturday on U.S. President George W. Bush as he arrived for talks with regional leaders at the conclusion of a five-day Mideast tour.

The newspapers, whose management are all appointed by the government, criticized Mr. Bush's speech Thursday in front of the Israeli Knesset for being overly supportive of the Israelis and not mentioning the Palestinians' plight.

"The Torah-inspired speech of Bush raised question marks over the credibility of the U.S. role in the Middle East," wrote Mursi Atallah, the publisher of Al-Ahram, the flagship daily of the state-owned press. "Bush aims to do nothing but appeasing Israel."

... front page editorial in Al-Gomhouria, another Egyptian state-owned daily, described Mr. Bush as "a failed president who delivers nothing but a lousy speech."

Akhbar Al-Youm also on Saturday published a picture of Mr. Bush hugging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and captioned it "lovers."

The paper also ran a front page cartoon showing an Egyptian peasant consoling President Hosni Mubarak for having to meet with "this burdensome guy who will be leaving soon," in reference to Mr. Bush.

Egypt was the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel and has long been seen as a key mediator in the Mideast dispute that Mr. Bush has said he wants to solve by the time he leaves office next January.

Mr. Bush delivered a rosy forecast for the Middle East in 2068 during his speech. He limited his mention of Palestinians to just one sentence. "The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved, a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror," he said.

On Friday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal commented on Mr. Bush's speech by saying its understandable that U.S.-Israel relations are special but "it is, however, important also to affirm the legitimate and political rights of the Palestinian people."

Several commentators have already observed that, by Bush's own words, his SecDef is an appeaser, guilty of "foolish delusion," and lacking "the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation's security."

But today Bush's work-wife Condi blew the whistle on another bunch of appeasers.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are privately discussing a peace agreement and the talks should intensify in the next several months, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday.

"I do know how seriously they are discussing all of the key issues," Rice told reporters aboard Air Force One as she returned from a Middle East trip with President George W. Bush. "I think you're going to see them intensifying those discussions over the next several months."

It's almost like...like...negotiating with armed enemies to see if you can find a way not to be enemies anymore...is...the sensible thing to do. ZOMG! The logic, it burns!