You call this a peace conference?

From Cairo, the Associated Press reported:

“Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed today to attend next week’s peace conference despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.

“In a sign of skepticism, even among close U.S. allies, the Saudi foreign minister cautioned that there would be no public handshakes with Israeli officials at the gathering Tuesday in Annapolis.”

This is a peace conference?

AP also reported:

“Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his government was waiting to see if the agenda addressed its priority issue – the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. U.S. officials have said Syria would be free to raise any issue it wants.”

If Syria demands the return of the Golan Heights – from which their artillery murdered so many Israeli farmers and their families between 1948 and the Six Day War in 1967 – Israel should reply:

“We lost so many good and courageous Israeli troops in taking the Golan Heights that if you think we will give up one inch of those Heights, you are not only barbarian but crazed as well.”

The AP also reported:

“Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria, attended the 1991 Madrid peace conference that brought together Israel and Arab countries. But the kingdom and other Arab nations have been cautious over any steps that would seem as ‘normalization’ with Israel before it returns Arab lands.”

Think about that 1991 Madrid peace conference. Did it bring peace any more than when Yitzhak Rabin met Yasser Arafat at Bill Clinton’s White House?

On Nov. 21, page 1 of the Baltimore Sun reported:

“The proceedings will begin with separate meetings at the White House on Monday between Bush and the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”

QUESTION: Why, in this entire 34-paragraph Sun story, is there no mention of Hamas, which still holds a majority in the Palestinian legislature – and which controls the entire Gaza Strip?

THE SUN: “The proceedings will begin with separate meetings at the White House on Monday. … Diplomats will gather on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy (in Annapolis) the next day for a ‘substantial speech by Bush, followed by a working lunch and closed-door session of speechmaking expected to stretch through the afternoon,’ officials said. On Wednesday, Bush will hold another round of separate meetings at the White House with Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.”

QUESTION: What is the estimated cost of all the security necessary to protect this astounding shunting from Washington-to-Annapolis-and-back-to-Washington? And how much could be saved if they remained in one city or the other?

THE SUN: “But no negotiations will take place next week U.S. officials said. It was also unclear how (Secretary of State) Rice, who will be master of ceremonies at Tuesday’s discussions in Annapolis, will accommodate all those who want to make speeches. ‘We will not turn the microphones off for anyone,’ promised C. David Welch, the State Department top Middle East Official.”

QUESTION: How then can this Washington-Annapolis-Washington shunting accomplish one whit more toward actual peacemaking than what this will so strongly resemble: the almost entirely hate-Israel rhetoric that so dominates the United Nations?

THE SUN: “State Department officials have acknowledged that the two sides have been unable to agree on a joint statement that was intended to be the centerpiece of the summit meeting. After weeks of negotiations, Abbas and Olmert said this week that they were still divided on such key issues as Israeli settlement on the West Bank and security arrangements between the two sides.”

QUESTION: If, after “weeks of negotiation” Abbas and Olmert say they are still divided on key issues – what in the name of common sense is the expectation from two days of Washington-Annapolis-Washington shunting – and no doubt lots of shouting?

THE SUN: “The participation of the Saudis and other moderate Arab states has been considered critical, analysts said, because of the U.S. intent to form a coalition of moderate Arabs and Israel against Iran.”

QUESTION: How can Saudi Arabia, which has contributed so much money to Arab terrorists, and where their law is currently scheduling 200 lashes for a 20 year-old woman rape victim, be so described by the Sun as “moderate”?

THE SUN: “The effort to assemble the conference has been strenuous, Welch said, with Rice and other U.S. diplomats working from 4 a.m. until close to midnight every day for the past three weeks.”

QUESTION: How many readers of the Baltimore Sun actually believe this Sun report that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice actually worked 20 hours a day every day for the past three weeks?

From the Associated Press on Nov. 21, the following report: “The event is meant to commit the Israel and the Palestinians to formal peace talks that carry international backing.”

QUESTION: Why does this one-sentence paragraph have no mention of the large number of Palestinian legislators who belong to Hamas?

AP: “With less than a week to go, organizers would not definitively promise that the session will confront the issues that have shipwrecked past peace efforts – the final borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of disputed Jerusalem, and the rights of Palestinians and their descendants who left homes in present-day Israel.”

QUESTION: Why is there absolutely nothing in this AP story about hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries all over the Middle East who in 1947 and 1948 lost their homes when they became refugees to Israel?

AP: “‘There is a common understanding that this is the moment in which they can change this picture and get serious negotiations started,’ Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said. New talks to set up an independent Palestinian state would begin immediately, U.S. diplomats said, but they gave no details.”

QUESTION: Is it not very clearly apparent why “they gave no details,” since Hamas –which holds a majority in the Palestinian legislature and which rules the Gaza Strip – firmly refuses to recognize Israel – or to stop armed attacks on Israel.

The AP quotes Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak as saying:

“Let’s wait for the Annapolis Conference, and let’s not say it’s a failure until then” (italics added).

Is that an admonition?

Or is it, much more probably, a prediction?

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