A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Foolish Concessions

A front page article in today's New York Times states as follows:

"...administration officials said that to rekindle the prospects for peace, Mr. Sharon was being pressed to consider doing something dramatic that would not directly affect Israeli security, like dismantling a small number of Jewish settlements established in the last two years." This is in sharp contrast to Sharon's claim in his recent interview with The Jerusalem Post that the only pressure to dismantle settlement outposts "is pressure from Jews on themselves."

The Times article also states that "two top White House aides — Stephen J. Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, director of Middle East affairs on the national security staff — took a helicopter trip across Israel with Mr. Sharon. Administration officials said at the time that the trip was an attempt by Mr. Sharon to show them the precariousness of Israel's security situation, as he had done with other visitors, including Mr. Bush before he was president. In fact, the officials said, the helicopter trip was partly intended for them to get a bird's eye view of Jewish settlements to see which ones would eventually be frozen or even dismantled as part of the peace negotiations."

If true - and I believe it is - this would be a grave error by Sharon. While Sharon trusts the Bush Administration, ultimately, by specifying prior to negotiations - even privately - the territorial concessions he will make, Sharon is inevitably creating pressure on Israel to give up more than that amount of territory. Furthermore, whatever Sharon conveyed to Abrams and Hadley wil be leaked, with the PA then insisting that negotiaions start from those concessions.
posted on 5/21/2003