In his United Nations speech, President Bush made it clear he's still committed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
"I'm committed to two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," he said in his address to the General Assembly, for what seemed like the umpteenth time of his administration.
Bush added he is committed to a Palestinian state that has territorial integrity – which means he still plans to divide tiny Israel in half from north to south to accomplish this goal.
"This is the vision set forth in the Road Map (notice the capitalization of this phrase), and helping the parties reach this goal is one of the great objectives of my presidency," he said.
He further claimed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is committed to peace and to his people's aspirations for a state of their own.
"I'm optimistic that, by supporting the forces of democracy and moderation, we can help Israelis and Palestinians build a more hopeful future and achieve the peace in the Holy Land we all want," Bush said.
I don't know why he is doing this. It makes no sense. It is not consistent with his rhetoric about terrorism. I guess it is like the theory of inertia – a body in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted on by some outside force.
Why am I so adamant about changing Bush's beloved "Road Map"? Because those running the Palestinian Authority are the same kind of terrorists with whom we're supposed to be warring. I know where this "Road Map" leads – and it is not to peace and freedom.
I don't get it. Maybe it's me. I'm trying to follow the president's leadership, but it's not making any sense.
After 9-11, he told us we were going to war with all the terrorists. We all understood he implicitly meant Islamic terrorists, even though he didn't specify. More recently, he has finally begun identifying the enemy as "Islamo-fascists," a term of endearment used in this space for many years.
Yet, the very people Israel is supposed to bargain with and turn over more land to are, no matter how you slice it, "Islamo-fascists" – intent on building a Taliban-like state in the new Palestinian homeland.
How can Israel find peace with people who only seek its destruction? That remains the unconditional demand of Israel's enemies – our enemies. Nothing has changed – not for Abbas and not for Hamas.
Israel is also supposed to do this while facing the prospect of nuclear annihilation from Iran – a nation that calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust.
The Hamas leadership in the Palestinian Authority also calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust.
The leadership of Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah also calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust.
Even the man we're all told is a moderate Arab leader, one who we can negotiate with and work with – Abbas, Yasser Arafat's successor in the Palestinian Authority, has a long history of calling for Israel's destruction and denies the Holocaust.
The only difference between the so-called "moderates" like Abbas and the Ahmadinejads of the world is that Abbas believes the goal of eliminating Israel can better be achieved through phases, over time.
Either way – if Israel must defend itself militarily from imminent conventional or unconventional attacks from neighbors, or if Israel faces a long future of asymmetrical conflict with an enemy determined to wear down its national will – a "Road Map" to a Palestinian state makes less sense than ever.
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