OUR GUY:

Musharraf: Israel must leave W. Bank (David Horovitz, Sep. 18, 2005, THE JERUSALEM POST)

In a landmark, unprecedented address to American Jewish leaders late on Saturday night, just days after he had shaken hands with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the UN General Assembly, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf urged Israel to show its "courage," and the Jewish community to use its influence, to solve the "Palestinian dispute once and for all."

He said this required Israel to pull out of the West Bank and agree a solution in Jerusalem that respected the city's "international character."

Resolution of the conflict, which Gen. Musharraf asserted lay "at the heart of terrorism in the Middle East and beyond," would "usher in a period of peace and tranquility in the Middle East and perhaps the whole world."

Among other things, it would certainly enable Pakistan to formalize full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, he indicated.

Speaking briefly to The Jerusalem Post shortly before making his address, Musharraf said he had no timetable for such ties. "We need to sit down and talk more [with the Israelis]," he told The Post, "and see how to move forward. We ought to be taking more steps."

An address which offers the delightful prospect of the neocons going after him and the Left suddenly perceiving the wisdom of our working with the General instead of against.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 18, 2005 11:08 PM