February 28, 2005
TRADING THE HEIGHTS FOR HEZBOLLAH
Secret Syrian, Israeli peace talks in Jordan, 'Post' learns (ORLY HALPERN, Feb. 28, 2005, THE JERUSALEM POST)
Syrian, Jordanian and Israeli Foreign Ministry officials held secret peace talks in Jordan last week, an official Jordanian source told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. According to the source, technical committees from Syria and Israel were hosted at the Movenpick Hotel on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea.Another meeting is planned, but there is no date set for it yet, said the source, who added that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss possibilities for more substantive peace contacts. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had no comment on the meeting. "This is the first time I have heard of this," said Mark Regev, the ministry's spokesman.
Syrian President Bashar Assad last November invited Israel to enter peace negotiations without preconditions.
Better hurry if they're going to get a deal before the regime falls.
MORE:
Syria May Be Bowing to Pressure (SALAH NASRAWI, 2/27/05, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Syria, long blamed for Middle East mayhem, seems to be bowing to U.S.-led international pressure to shed its image as a sponsor of regional instability.Posted by Orrin Judd at February 28, 2005 12:00 AMIraqi authorities say Syria - accused among other things of aiding anti-Israeli extremists and fanning the insurgency in Iraq - handed over Saddam Hussein's feared half brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan. The decision came as an apparent goodwill gesture to ease tensions with the United States, which has demanded Damascus stop aiding Mideast militants and withdraw its 15,000 soldiers from neighboring Lebanon.
The Fact is syria best do as it is told to do, Because the israelis will have us attack that so called country. as far as Lebanon goes who real cares? is it all about what you think its about?
and are we in a war for who? and what are our real aims/goals/designs about? in other words who is controlling who in the Mideast and for what reason? and ask where in bin laden?
Posted by: Fred Dawes at February 28, 2005 3:58 AMSo Fred, are you going to let us in on the secret? Or just tease us? Is it the Jews? The Saudis? Halliburton? The CIA? The Trilateral Commission? The vast right wing conspiracy? That voice in your head?
Posted by: curt at February 28, 2005 8:34 AMI think it's the voice in Fred's head. Or maybe the Jews.
Also, Fred, I must say I enjoyed your punctuation.
Posted by: jonofatlanta at February 28, 2005 9:46 AMWhat I find fascinating is that, from his comment, it is impossible to know if Fred is criticizing us from the left or the right.
Nonetheless, let's take his questions seriously:
The Fact is syria best do as it is told to do, You say that as if it's a bad thing. Syria, like all the other trouble makers in the region, really had better do as they're told. Or else.
Because the israelis will have us attack that so called country. Yes, it's an amazing coincidence that we've attacked Syria just as it suddenly became hostile to Israel for the first time in 50 years. But, seriously, isn't it far more likely that we're saber rattling in Syria because they are destabilizing our new client state, Iraq, rather than anything they're doing to our old client state, Israel?
as far as Lebanon goes who real cares? Well, we care in that low-key, "isn't that a shame" Seinfeldian manner, but your essential point is correct. Like WMDs and Saddam, Lebanon is just a handy stick with which to beat someone we want to overthrow anyway.
is it all about what you think its about? Yes.
and are we in a war for who? Oddly enough, the children.
and what are our real aims/goals/designs about? We want to destabilize the tyrannical regimes in the middle east, along with the version of radical Islam they support and hope, over time (though it's going more quickly than we ever would have believed) to replace them with stable democracies, thereby limiting anti-American terrorism, securing the world's main energy supply and thus our economic future, and spreading the blessings of liberty to people throughout the world.
in other words who is controlling who in the Mideast and for what reason? The Caliph lives in Washington.
and ask where in bin laden? Most likely dead, but in any event not where he expected to be.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 28, 2005 10:17 AMCareful, Gertrude Stein seems to have thought so, too.
Posted by: jonofatlanta at February 28, 2005 11:50 AM