New York Sun Staff Editorial
The reasoning behind Secretary Rice's decision to skip Israel and the Palestinian Arab Authority during a trip abroad next week was said by the State Department spokesman Sean McCormack to be connected to the parlous political situation in the Jewish state. "The political situation in Israel has become a bit more complex in the near term," Mr. McCormack told reporters by way of explanation.
These columns would be the last to dismiss worries about Israel's political situation, although it remains far more stable, resilient, and capable of decision-making than the two-headed "government" responsible for Palestinian Arab affairs. Prime Minister Olmert faces multiple woes, and the betting is that the coup de grace on his premiership will be delivered, between now and September, by when the Winograd Commission will publish its complete report on Mr. Olmert's failures of leadership during the war launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
At the same time, Mr. Olmert's coalition has, for the time being, the support of a large enough majority of the Knesset that, on paper at least, it is the most stable coalition in Israel's history. Yet Mr. Olmert could well face a revolt from within his own party, Kadima. Hints of that surfaced when the party 's number two, Foreign Minister Livni, publicly called on Mr. Olmert to resign. The coalition's second largest constituent, Labor, may bolt as soon as it chooses a new leader to replace the stumbling Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, later this month.
If Ms. Rice's decision looks like a "punishment" meted out to Mr. Olmert for his political weakness, it is also a rebuke for Jerusalem's lack of enthusiasm for the latest American plan, the "Acceleration Benchmarks for Agreement on Movement and Access as well as on the Gaza Security Situation." In the face of continued anomy in the Gaza District, the AMA seeks to open transport and the flow of goods into and out of Israel.
This would be logical were there guarantees that the expedited vegetable trucks would not be delivering explosives. Instead, the AMA states that its goal is for "Israel [to] allow the passage of convoys between Gaza and the West Bank to facilitate the movement of goods and persons, with appropriate security arrangements" and "To reach mutual agreement on a plan for facilitating movement of people and goods within the West Bank, and to minimize disruption to Palestinian lives by reducing the number of obstacles to movement to the maximum extent possible."
In theory, the "appropriate security arrangements" will rest on establishing "normal and continued coordination between the IDF, Presidential Guard, and other internal security organizations … " In fact, the failure to produce such arrangement has bedeviled a decade and a half of diplomacy with the Palestinians. The whole AMA in other words, is but another pie-in-the-sky scheme that is based on such a failure to appreciate the nature of the war being levied against Israel that it seems almost disingenuous.
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Meeting with Rice required practical political will: FM
Tehran, May 10, IRNA
Iran-US-Mottaki
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stressed on Thursday that his meeting with his American counterpart required political determination, in practice and not only in word.He reiterated that his meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on the sideline of the Sharm el-Sheikh confab also needed the definition of topics of discussion.
Talking to the Iranian al-Alam TV channel, he said no meeting was scheduled to be held between the two sides.
However, Mottaki added that several accidental and short meetings were held between the two countries' representatives on the sideline of the confab which were focused on Iraq.
"If we witness a constructive determination, if requests are made through official channels, and if honesty is seen in the US requests, Tehran will be ready to hold discussions with Washington on Iraq," the Iranian foreign minister said.
On the issue of abducted Iranian diplomats in Iraq, he said, "It is better for the Americans to save themselves from the consequences of such illegal and incorrect moves as soon as possible."
He further quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying that the problem would be solved soon.
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