U.S. envoy to PA slams Israel for refusing to ease PA conditions

[Purveyor]

Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top American security envoy to the Palestinian Authority, has criticized Israel for its failure to help define a "security horizon" for the Palestinians and its refusal to ease conditions in the Palestinian Authority.

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Officials who spoke to Dayton reported that he believed the political situation in Israel was making it hard to make "difficult decisions" such as removing roadblocks.

"It's ridiculous to argue that there isn't a single roadblock that can be removed," a member of Dayton's team said.

Dayton told Washington officials that the Israeli defense establishment objected every time suggestions were made to alleviate the Palestinians' situation.

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Like other senior American officials, Dayton dismisses Israel's objections to the "benchmarks" paper the Americans had presented to Israel and the Palestinians. Israel rejected the proposed timetable to remove all the roadblocks in the West Bank and the demand for Palestinian convoys between Gaza and the West Bank.


---EOE---

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/865684.html

[Tom Joad]

1. I expect he will be fired from his job soon. Or at best just told to keep quiet

because this president, and this congress, want nothing for Palestinians, and are just happy to see them suffer.

[bemildred]

2. That was my first take. At a minimum, it will be attempted.

But I am tending to think there really is trouble in this marriage. There is a real divergence of "interests", because of the way we have screwed the pooch in public in Iraq, and we have a Presidential election coming up, and all the chips are going to be on the table this time. Congress and the Executive may not WANT to do much about the Palestinians, but getting your ass kicked out of office because of the mess George has made in the Middle East will not appeal to them either. So fig-leafs and concessions and demonstrations of concern will be demanded more and more vigorously as the election draws near. Or at least, I think so. Prediction is a mugs game. It looks like Turkey is going to invade Kurdistan, and Lord only knows where that is going to go.

[bemildred]

3. Here, this is what I mean:

Welcome to the summer of hate

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There was a huge elephant in that Baghdad room where ambassadors from the United States and Iran smashed a 27-year-old iceberg and met this week - and the name of the elephant is Israel. Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, expressed hope, on the record, that talks would continue in case the Bush administration admitted its Middle East policy had "failed".

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Bomb Iran

...

1. For the Israeli establishment, invading Iraq and deposing the already ineffective Saddam Hussein system was a very bad move (although they didn't think so in 2002).

2. Attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 was a very bad move. "We should have done it, but with at least two divisions, to smash them completely," said a retired general.

3. Now there is an unshakable consensus that the real inevitable move will be to attack Iran's nuclear installations - preferably showering cruise missiles over the Natanz plant. Whatever spinning rolls on, attacking Iran remains the key tenet of the Ziocon (Zionists + neo-conservatives) policy.

etc.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IF02Ak01.html

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He catches the looney incoherent flavor of how things are descending into chaos well, which is what you get with weak, incompetent, and violent leaders littered about the world as they are now. And it is something I remember well from 40 years ago, and I think we are only just warming up, the worst is yet to come.

The bits on the lunacy of US policy in Iraq are worth reading too.

[Scurrilous]

4. Israel to ask U.S. to slow down, soften benchmarks initiative

<snip>

"Israel is expected to give its official response to the U.S. benchmarks plan before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with President George Bush later this month, proposing that the administration to delay the recommended implementation for the plan, and asking that the lifting of roadblocks be subject to Israel's security considerations.

The American document, which details actions for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to implement in the coming months, calls on Israel to remove many West Bank roadblocks and improve operations at Gaza's border crossings. The Palestinians were asked to halt rocket fire from Gaza and weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

"We agree that we have not lifted enough roadblocks," a diplomatic official told Haaretz Sunday, "but the American schedule would spell security abandon, which the Americans themselves prefer to avoid."

Israel's response includes a suggestion to extend the schedule for the plan, which was determined by U.S. security coordinator Major General Keith Dayton."

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/866561.html