Score One For Condi
The Secretary of State has brokered a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians regarding Gaza border crossings:
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reached a broad agreement to move people and goods in and out of Gaza to enhance the territory’s viability and strengthen the moderate leadership of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Tuesday after a full day and night of marathon negotiations.The agreement represented a major breakthrough in an impasse over several issues that had caused mounting bitterness between Israel and the Palestinians following the withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers last August. It was aimed at opening up several crossings from Gaza to neighboring Israel and Egypt while giving Israeli security personnel a role behind the scenes in checking trucks, buses and individuals to guard against terrorist attacks.
In an extraordinary personal effort in the Middle East that the Bush administration has not attempted in five years, Ms. Rice and her aides led the arduous all-night negotiations, closeted at her ninth floor suite in the David Citadel Hotel here, near the old walled city, with top aides to Prime Minister Sharon and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. She was also joined by James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president and special Middle East peace envoy.
Earlier, Ms. Rice decided abruptly after a full day of talks to cancel her plans to travel to South Korea on Monday night in order to bring the talks to a successful conclusion amid warnings by Palestinians that without the issues being solved, Gaza would remain a prison for Palestinians, unable to export goods or let people get to their jobs in Israel and the West Bank.
This is not only good for Rice, but good for American prestige in the region. Well done…
Fox was dogging her last night.
Their on the scene reporter, jennifer Griffin(?) was making her statement that the deal was close sound completely off base.
Apparently Condi has better sources, go figure.
I’m not a huge dick morris fan, but his eval of Condi’s success as Sec of State is ringing true. I really think she has far more credibility than Powell, if for the only reason being that she is considered a ‘trusted’ advisor to bush.
Currying favor with her can be seen as an attempt to curry favor with Bush, and that seems to be going down a lot. Foreign policy has significantly picked up, since the election.
Way to go, Condi.
To your point MtL, I think there is something to say for State and Defense working together in terms of forging an effective foreign policy. They’ve been doing a pretty co-ordinated global twostep (central Asia, Latin America, the far east, the middle east) over the last ten months–one goes in and softens up the ground then the other goes in and closes the deal. Can’t tell who’s leading. Maybe they take turns. Whatever the protocol is, it’s a huge improvement and appears to have the full confidence of the President.
The progress in the ME is obscured by attention elsewhere.
All my life I figured that the most dangerous conflict that could spill over into WWIII was in the ME. In the past three years the liklihood of it happening have radically dropped.
Kudos to the WH, for refusing to negotiate with Arafat, establishing what it would take for dialogue with the next Palestinian leader…
They got it.
Syria in a corner, Saddam gone, foward movement in the peace process, Lebanon liberated, and after the bombing in jordan along with the civilian deaths by suicide bombings in Iraq, clearly the world has changed…
oh and ‘Bush lied’….
Go Condi! I’ve been a big fan of her’s long before Dick Morris wrote his book, which, by the way, seems to be spot-on in terms of her potential for presidential success.
Is it her ability or the closeness she shares with Bush?
She has the legitimacy of the President, and I think that many are hoping to curry favor with her, to earn Bush’s trust.
There are three issues out there, Foreign Policy, domestic policy, and Iraq(seperate from foreign policy because of its domestic implications.)
Bush is stalled on the last two, and that has been the story, but success abroad in foreign policy is bountiful.
Nobel worthy? wouldn’t that make HRC puke.
I notice the Washington Times is reporting that Saudi Arabia has ended its economic boycott of Israel; in return, Saudi Arabia is going to be admitted into the WTO. Even without the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush has accomplished more in the Middle East than Clinton did in eight bloviating years. Of course, much of it wouldn’t have happened without the war.
Utron, it’s staggering that this didn’t get more press…then again, I guess it’s business as usual, eh?…