Most Palestinians see Rice role as negative - poll | By Agence France Presse (AFP) |
Thursday, March 29, 2007
JERUSALEM: An overwhelming majority of Palestinians think US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is playing a negative role in efforts to budge the stalled peace process, said a poll published on Wednesday. Eighty-two percent of those questioned think Rice is playing either a negative or a very negative role, compared with 11 percent who think her contribution is positive, according to the survey. Forty-four percent think Rice's diplomatic efforts have worsened the image of the United States in the region, compared with 46 percent who see the image unchanged and 5 percent who think it has improved. The poll was conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre. - AFP
Rice hints the US may push for creation of Palestinian state | RAW STORY | Published: Saturday March 24, 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Egypt that an about-face by the Bush administration the creation of a Palestinian state is not out of the realm of possibility, reports the New York Times.
"I don’t rule out at some point that might be a useful thing to do," she said.
"Trying to impose an American-made solution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has, for years, been the very thing that Bush administration officials have steadfastly said they would not do," says the Times.
But the Iraq war has now significantly eroded the standing of the United States in the Arab world. Many administration officials now feel that the only way to restore that standing is to push the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the direction of the creation of a Palestinian state.
"Several State Department officials say that there is now an acknowledgment within the administration that the hands-off policy has caused prospects for peace to deteriorate," writes the NYT. ..
Former US United Nations Ambassador John Bolton told the BBC today that he was “damned proud” of how the U.S. intentionally blocked efforts to achieve a ceasefire last summer when Israel was bombing Beirut and many other locales in Lebanon.
The BBC summarized Bolton’s comments: “A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah’s military capability.”
Bolton said it was “perfectly legitimate and good politics” for Israel to seek to crush Hezbollah. The fact that the Israelis used U.S. bombs to wreak death and destruction throughout Lebanon is apparently irrelevant. More than a thousand Lebanese civilians were killed by the Israeli government, with the Bush team cheering on each detonation.
AIPAC, the most powerful lobby in DC, bragged of its role in blocking any ceasefire. (A good critique of AIPAC’s role in the Lebanon carnage is here). ...
Bolton admits Lebanon truce block | Thursday, 22 March 2007,
A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah's military capability.
Mr Bolton said an early ceasefire would have been "dangerous and misguided".
He said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working. ...
...
Mr Bolton now describes it as "perfectly legitimate... and good politics" for the Israelis to seek to defeat their enemy militarily, especially as Hezbollah had attacked Israel first and it was acting "in its own self-defence".
Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was "damned proud of what we did" to prevent an early ceasefire.
...
More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and an unknown number of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the conflict.
Israel lost 116 soldiers in the fighting, while 43 of its civilians were killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
