Bush endorses Sharon plan

Today at a joint press conference with Israeli crook...I mean, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush endorsed Sharon's plan to pull Jewish settlements out of the Gaza Strip. In addition, Bush announced his endorsement of Sharon's plans to keep most of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. This effectively marks a complete abandonment of the so-called "road map" peace plan, though Bush would not admit that. The plan called for reciprocal concessions from both the Israelis and the Palestinians. One of the concessions Israel was supposed to give was the disbanding of all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. With this reversal, I cannot imagine Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie will push very hard to end Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Qurie also pointed out that "Bush is the U.S. president to give legitimacy to Jewish settlements on Palestinian land." Indeed, this is an unprecedented and incredibly short-sighted move by the president. He has now placed in even greater danger the Israeli people (and by extension, the Palestinian people, too), and also U.S. troops in Iraq. It has been reported that the four contractors were mutillated so horribly two weeks ago in part as a revenge for the assasination of Sheikh Yassin in Israel. It can only be assumed that there are some in Iraq who will again wish to seek vengeance for American slights. Bush opened Pandora's box long ago, but he refuses to shut it.

Robert