or — suck on that, Ms Short:
“Blair’s motivations are no less cynical than Bush’s. While European unity has been torn over the Iraqi campaign, there is strong consensus on the continent for the need to stop the vicious cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians and to bring an end to the Israeli occupation and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, which are seen as the root of trouble. France and Germany, who have led the opposition to Bush in Europe, have remained largely silent on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, since they don’t have to prove their peace credentials. But the leaders of Britain and Spain, America’s allies in the old world, are going up against the overwhelmingly antiwar public opinion in their countries and are trying to make up some of their losses by embracing the Palestinians, a pet issue for European liberals. In other words, Blair and Aznar have called for ending the Israeli occupation, in order to legitimize, or at least make more politically palatable, their own occupation of Baghdad, Mossul and Basra.”
Aluf Benn, writing in Salon.
He’s right. you know.
He goes on to say:
“From Sharon’s perspective, the quid pro quo was the American agreement to accept Israeli “contributions” to the road-map text. A special interagency committee, headed by Weisglass, has been working in recent weeks to prepare Israel’s official response to the plan. The draft document, written as Israel’s version of the road map, contains dozens of deletions and additions to the original text. Sharon told Bush that Israel would accept only a road map that accurately reflects the president’s June 24 speech, in which he put the onus on the Palestinians to stop their terror attacks and replace Arafat, without calling for any corresponding moves on the Israeli side. The Israeli corrections were ostensibly intended to make the road map conform to Bush’s language. In fact, they make tougher demands on the Palestinians, while loosening the Israeli commitments.”
Quite the most disgusting aspect of the whole winter in British politics has been the wilful horrendous self-delusion about our relationship to the Americans.