January 10, 2005
DO AS YOU'RE TOLD AND BE REWARDED:
Bush Congratulates Abbas on Electoral Victory: President Signals Willingness to Reengage Palestinians in Peace Process (William Branigin, January 10, 2005, Washington Post)
President Bush said today he looks forward to meeting newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington and called on both Israel and the Palestinian leadership to fulfill their obligations in the Middle East peace process.In effectively inviting Abbas to visit him, Bush signaled his willingness to open a new era of engagement with the Palestinian leadership after years of refusing to deal with Abbas's predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Bush came to regard Arafat, who died in Paris in November at age 75, as an unreliable partner in the peace process.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 10, 2005 4:40 PM
Arafat an "Unreliable partner," eh?
The encomia keep coming....
Given that most of the ROW continue to believe that, to the contrary, Arafat was a most reliable partner, one might Wonder how much more "reliable" Abbas will feel he needs to be.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at January 10, 2005 5:15 PMBarry: My problem is with "came to believe". When did W ever think that Arafat was anything other than a dishonest, double-dealing, self-aggrandizing tyrant-wanna-be?
Posted by: David Cohen at January 10, 2005 6:43 PMBush is basically giving Abbas the same deal he gave Tom Daschle after Bush's 2000 victory was confirmed. He told Tom at their first meeting, "Don't you lie to me," and we all know how well Daschle held up his part of the bargain and what the end result of that was this fall.
Abbas gets the benefit of th doubt from Bush right now, but the same thing holds true. If the U.S. catches him lying, the way Arafat did to Bush on the Karine A weapons ship in 2002, he'll be as personna non grata with the administration as Yassir was.