OPPOSITE! :

Bush Declares His Path (LA Times, 6/25/02)

President Bush's long-awaited speech Monday marked a decisive break with his administration's on-again, off-again approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Never again can he pretend, as he did for months, that the United States can conduct a war on terrorism and at the same time remain aloof from the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

When our son was a toddler and he didn't like something you'd said to him, he'd look at you and holler : Opposite! Today he should be standing on the curb in front of the LA Times building, because they have this story exactly backwards.

With his speech yesterday, President Bush disengaged from the Palestinian problem and gave Israel carte blanche to do whatever it deems necessary. He did so by setting the bar to further negotiations so high that the Palestinians can't clear it. No leader can come to power there who doesn't bear the taint of having been involved in terrorism, so there's no one for us to negotiate with. Israel will have to settle this militarily and then dictate terms to whatever is left of the Palestinians. That's where this has always been headed, but it would be better to follow this course against a Palestinian state than against an occupied territory, solely for reasons of appearance.

Opposite!

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2002 2:22 PM