A monument to dimplomatic incompetence

[NoZed Avenger]

Actually I was torn between:
Dimple-omacy (ibid Shirley Temple)
Dim-plomacy (Alex and his droogie doing a little soft shoe on the Foreign Minister's windpipe)

How about "Diplomatic Incontinence" ?



ETA: Just caught up with reading; sorry to potentially derail - thought the topic had been going south. I'll bow out of my digression.

 

[Doctor Evil]

Time to dig up this thread, as events continue to unfold. Two related items:

1. A US newspaper finally discovered that the Administration has made stupid mistakes in its middle east policy. The winner is the Washington Post. If you read the OP there is no need to read the story.

2. There are strong romors that Abbas will announce that he will not run to reelection or negotiate if he does not get a full freeze of settlements, including in east Jerusalem. (Which he will not get.) He is supposed to be speaking in about an hour.

Now, I do not see how he can be holding elections in Gaza without cooperation with Hamas, which he does not have. But this is another story altogether. He is obviously grandstanding to gain concessions, but from his past history, he may actually retire.

 

[Doctor Evil]

The Jerusalem Post have an editorial which already says goodbye to Abbas. It is a good one:

Abbas lacked the courage to seize the opportunity of a deal with the desperate Olmert - an Israeli prime minister who, late in his political life, had become persuaded that a two-state solution was an urgent imperative for Israel, and who belied the claim that no Israeli prime minister would give more to the Palestinians than Barak offered in vain to Arafat.


The gaps were too wide, Abbas complained, even as he cited a purported Olmert offer of 97 percent of the West Bank and recognition in principle (denied by Olmert) of a Palestinian "right of return." He preferred, as he told The Washington Post this past May, to bide his time. "I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," he said, in an article headlined "Abbas's Waiting Game." "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality."


Well, the waiting is almost over now for Mahmoud Abbas, but there's no "good reality" in store for him.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Time to dig up this thread, as events continue to unfold. Two related items:

1. A US newspaper finally discovered that the Administration has made stupid mistakes in its middle east policy. The winner is the Washington Post. If you read the OP there is no need to read the story.

2. There are strong romors that Abbas will announce that he will not run to reelection or negotiate if he does not get a full freeze of settlements, including in east Jerusalem. (Which he will not get.) He is supposed to be speaking in about an hour.

Now, I do not see how he can be holding elections in Gaza without cooperation with Hamas, which he does not have. But this is another story altogether. He is obviously grandstanding to gain concessions, but from his past history, he may actually retire.

His Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, appears to have been appointed rather than elected. He has a mixed record, and does not appear to electable based on what this story offers in analysis.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214839

Food for thought. He won't get elected if he keeps saying stuff like this:

"It has to make sense."

The Middle East is full of men who aim to impose order—it's been that way since at least the time of the pharaohs. But none has operated quite like Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister. Fayyad, 57, learned his methods partly in the United States, where he studied at the University of Texas and later worked for the International Monetary Fund. America's great institution builders are among his models. One of his favorite Founding Fathers is Alexander Hamilton, the aristocratic New York Federalist. At times Fayyad has also embraced the frontier ethos of the American West, where order more often takes the form of rough justice. (George W. Bush used to greet Fayyad in the Oval Office by flashing him the Texas "Hook 'em, Horns" sign.) One of Fayyad's most common remarks, which he repeats like a mumbled prayer, can sound very Middle American: "It has to make sense."

As to the WP article:

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, mused Wednesday about the end of the dream of a Palestinian state and scoffed at the Obama administration's notion of baby steps to talks. "As to the baby steps, we begun taking them in 1990-1991, and we have been crawling for 19 years," he said. "We need youthful steps to end the occupation and establish a Palestinian state."

Don't tell me what you need, tell me what you intend to do, what your plan is, and how you get it put into place.

I am all ears, Mister Negotiator.

DR

 

[Lurker]

It was also a great board game when I was a kid.

Berlin to Silesia ...
Kiel to North Sea ...
Munich to Burgundy ...

And also as a grown up. You're pissing off every one of your neighbors there! If you had tried my preferred German opening you might have fared better and kept playing into adulthood. Ber-kie, mun-ruh, kie-hol.

I should add that your kie-nth is a misorder. Ska is in the way.

 

[Doctor Evil]

As predicted, Abbas says he will not run for reelection:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he had no wish to seek re-election at a presidential poll he has called for January and that he was not ready to debate the issue.

In a speech broadcast live from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the 74-year-old PLO leader, who replaced the late Yasser Arafat five years ago, said: "I have told our brethren in the PLO ... that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election."

Byebye, Abbas. You had your chance (during the talk with Olmert) and blew it.



PS I happen to think that he is aiming for an Augustus style resignation, where everyone would just run to give him what he wants so that he stays in office. I also happen to think that he misreads the situation.