Love of the Land: Stop Worshipping the False “Peace Process” Religion

Stop Worshipping the False “Peace Process” Religion

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
19 April '10

There have been few more dogged proponents of and participants in the “peace process” than Aaron David Miller. So when he now hops off the bandwagon and declares the “peace process” to be the equivalent of a false religion, it’s worth taking note. He explains:

Like all religions, the peace process has developed a dogmatic creed, with immutable first principles. Over the last two decades, I wrote them hundreds of times to my bosses in the upper echelons of the State Department and the White House; they were a catechism we all could recite by heart. First, pursuit of a comprehensive peace was a core, if not the core, U.S. interest in the region, and achieving it offered the only sure way to protect U.S. interests; second, peace could be achieved, but only through a serious negotiating process based on trading land for peace; and third, only America could help the Arabs and Israelis bring that peace to fruition.

He notes that he wrote his share of memos reciting the same catechism, but he couldn’t do it again today:

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Love of the Land: Stop Worshipping the False “Peace Process” Religion

Israel Matzav: Brazil about to follow Venezuela and State Department has nothing to say?

Brazil about to follow Venezuela and State Department has nothing to say?

This is from a State Department briefing:

QUESTION: Ahmadinejad is going to be visiting Brazil in a couple of days. Is the fact that a friendly government like that welcoming Ahmadinejad – does that tend to dilute international solidarity on the nuclear issue?

MR. WOOD: Well, President Ahmadinejad going to Brazil, that’s an issue between the Government of Brazil and the Government of Iran. What we would hope is that the Government of Brazil would raise some of these concerns that we have, many of which I’ve just laid out here, about Iran in those meetings. But beyond that, I don’t have anything to add to that.

J.E. Dyer comments:

So: Brazil is hosting the three major regional players in Middle Eastern dynamics this month. One of them is the president of Iran, the revolutionary, terrorist-sponsoring state Obama is trying to pressure on its nuclear program. Brazil – a nuclear client of Russia – has been following Venezuela’s path toward “increased economic ties” with Iran, which in literal terms means banking arrangements that circumvent sanctions, plus plenty of “legitimate” manufacturing and container shipping to obscure trade in prohibited goods. And the views of our State Department on these circumstances boil down to an absurdly banal bromide (the Ahmadinejad visit is “an issue between Brazil and Iran”) and a “hope” that Brazil will raise some of our concerns with the Iranian president.

Doesn't anyone in Washington get it?

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: Brazil about to follow Venezuela and State Department has nothing to say?

Israel Matzav: State Department: No change in policy on Hezbullah ... or is there?

State Department: No change in policy on Hezbullah ... or is there?

On Friday, I noted some very wishy washy remarks on terrorism by John Brennan, President Obama's senior adviser on homeland security and counter-terrorism. I wasn't the only one who noticed them, because they came up at Deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood's press briefing on Friday afternoon.

Let's go to the videotape. The part about Hezbullah starts at 6:14 and ends around 9:15. A transcript follows.

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Israel Matzav: State Department: No change in policy on Hezbullah ... or is there?

Israel Matzav: State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

There must have been a lot of pressure brought on the State Department and the White House because of Assistant Secretary of State Wood's hint about sanctions against Israel on Tuesday. Thursday's press briefing opened with the following from Assistant Secretary of State Phillip Crowley:

MR. CROWLEY: Mr. Goyal, good afternoon. Hello to one and all from your Department of State. A couple of announcements before taking your questions:

Special Representative Richard Holbrooke has arrived in Afghanistan after a stop in Pakistan. He will be meeting with officials of the Afghan Government over the next several days, and dealing with a variety of issues leading up to Afghan’s election on August 20. He spent the day today in Helmand province, but over the course of his time in Afghanistan will be focused on critical issues such as civilian-military planning, police, rule of law, Afghan civil society, and agriculture.

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Israel Matzav: State Department: Sanctions? What sanctions?

Israel Matzav: State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

It's come to this. Let's go to the videotape of Tuesday's State Department briefing by Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood in Washington. The part about Israel starts around 2:15 with a question about Senator Mitchell and ends around the 7:00 mark (fully one third of the briefing).

Here's a transcript of the part about Israel:

QUESTION: And what about these rumors about Mitchell – Senator Mitchell would be ready to or would be willing to retire before the end of the year? Did you hear about that?

MR. WOOD: That’s the first I’ve heard. No, not at all. I don’t think any truth to that at all.

QUESTION: Could I ask a North Korea question, then?

QUESTION: Still on this.

MR. WOOD: Sure.

QUESTION: Yeah, Israel Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor has said today that U.S. calls for a freeze on West Bank settlement construction run counter to past agreement between the two nations and could undermine the U.S. credibility. Do you have any reaction?

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Israel Matzav: State Department: It's 'premature' to talk about sanctions against... Israel

Israel Matzav: Amateur hour at the State Department

Amateur hour at the State Department

Today's daily press briefing at the State Department was given by Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs P.J. "this is my seventh day on the job here at the Department of State" Crowley. Even the fact that he is a Red Sox fan cannot redeem this sequence.

QUESTION: Well, as you know, I mean, the Bush Administration made kind of democracy in the Middle East, you know, a big cornerstone of its foreign policy, but a lot of people were disappointed with the results. I mean, how do you think that President Obama and this Administration is going to push ahead on issues of democracy in the Middle East? Do you think it’ll be more private, more bilateral, or --

MR. CROWLEY: Well, I mean, it’s going to be – obviously, what you’re seeing from the administration in its first five months is a return to high-level engagement in the Middle East, at the presidential level, when appropriate. We’ve had a number of our most seasoned diplomats put into positions where we can have dialogue, with Iran if they’re willing, with Israel and Palestine. George Mitchell will be going back out to the region in the next couple of weeks.

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Israel Matzav: Amateur hour at the State Department