When you want to be President, you have to “kiss up” to everyone.
Bush hopes to get the 2 sides to agree by the end of 2008, on a final deal that includes the formation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. As much as I wish that would happen, there is no way in h***that that is going to happen! Super statesman and leader “W” hasn’t gotten anything accomplished in 7 years, so why would anyone think he could pull this off?

I’ve heard more than once the Israeli lobby is only behind AARP in power in Washington. Neither US party has been willing to make the US a fair arbiter in the Middle East.
I wonder where Obama stands on the war crimes Israel has been committing by holding all the Gazans prisoners. I’m glad they broke out and I hope they can get some food, meds and so forth. They really need for their lives to get normalized and it be possible for them to go back to work, to school, etc. Does anyone wonder why a lot of them would support Hamas, which broke them out; no doubt a much smaller but probably growing number supports the attacks on Israel, which has imprisoned them.

When normal people can’t get to work, they get annoyed. When Pals can’t get to work, they send their kids to blow themselves up and kill Jewish babies and children.
The U.S. has no business doing anything for these savages.

WOW Larry that was a really bigoted statement about a whole people group and I’m sure you don’t personally know most of them.
I wonder how B.O. can justify supporting a country that still endorses land stealing, unfair housing segregation, unfair hiring practices and a country that if he was in as a Black person would have absolutely no chance of doing what he is doing now.

As I was sure would happen, I’m with cknuck on this one.
Larry if, say, Canada blew up your place of business and blockaded the US so almost nothing could get in and every so often flew over and dropped bombs or shot missiles at Americans they claimed had done bad things but who never had a trial and, in the process, killed a bunch of other people I think you’d feel differently. Especially maybe if “Canada” occupied the former US down to, say, Saint Louis and you’d lived in Wisconsin before Canada moved in.
No, Larry, I don’t think you have a clue what it’s like to live as a Palestinian. The amazing thing is that a lot more aren’t militaristic.

How about having a military barrage of huge weapon fire all night just to keep you in fear and keep you from sleeping? Israel has done some rather nasty things to the Palestinian people in attempt to psychologically break them down and keep them in fear. B.O. claims to be sensitive to discrimination and injustice yet he clearly supports it as long as he can get votes out of it.

> pagansister: Super statesman and leader “W” hasn’t gotten anything
> accomplished in 7 years…
Yeah, I suppose the plain fact America hasn’t seen the likes of -another- 9/11 falls under “hasn’t gotten anything accomplished”.
For those who would have been directly affected by such attacks the accomplishment is by no means a trivial matter.
As for not getting more done more done than what he has…you’re forgetting the House and the Senate and what role they play. Or…do they only count when:
a.) You find another scapegoat
b.) They accomplish only what you personally wish accomplished
> Larry: When Pals can’t get to work, they send their kids to blow
> themselves up and kill Jewish babies and children.
It’s a misnomer that all Palestinians are terrorists or even Muslims. There are those who are not and suffer for it at the hands of fellow Palestinians. Unfortunately, they often are overlooked.
The way Isreal also happens to persecute some of their own citizens because of their beliefs, such as Christians, also happens to be overlooked.
Isreal’s own record certainly isn’t spotless.

For those who credit Bush with there not being another terrorist attack, remember that the men and women of our intelligence agencies and border patrol would be the ones who prevent those, which would have been their job under any president. But Bush’s inane invasion of Iraq has made us far, far less popular than we would be in the world and the stupidity of how he did it has stretched our military toward breaking and his decision to ignore the Israeli-Palestinian situation for six years and watch how it festered because it’s hard has been a signal for any Muslims who care to interpret it that way that we don’t care what happens to Muslims. And our use of torture has thrown away our moral advantage over a lot of countries that we used to have.

“It’s a misnomer that all Palestinians are terrorists or even Muslims. There are those who are not and suffer for it at the hands of fellow Palestinians. Unfortunately, they often are overlooked.”
That is true indeed. The way our news media played it for decades has been that some crazy Palestinians, for no apparent reason, would attack Israel and anything Israel did was a response to that. As though Palestinians had nothing better to do than attack Israel and Israel is an innocent bystander.
But in fact Israel is on the land of Palestinians still in the area and no doubt a lot of the attacks a few Palestinians make are in response to Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
So with equal (in)accuracy it could have been played that Israel bombed or rocketed or bulldozed some Palestinians and their property and then Palestinian defenders made some mostly futile return attacks.
There are no heroes in the Middle East except some who are trying to make peace, and the Israelis suffer too, but the suffering is incredibly one-sided and for every dead or wounded Israeli there are many dead and wounded Palestinians, and Israelis for the most part get on with their lives and live in a more or less thriving society while Palestinians are blockaded and live pretty tough lives.
The Palestinians who are firing the rockets and those who are profiting politically from the suffering of their fellows, and the Israelis who profit politically and those who get still more of the Palestinians’ land are doing so well by this horrible situation and have so much power there that it will be hard to correct in any case.
But the fact the US is so enmeshed in it and the fact the Israeli lobby has so much political power in the US that we’ve never been even handed and likely never will be, has perhaps kept those who are doing the suffering from finding a solution on their own.
And btw the Israeli lobby is not just US Jews, who have some reason to fear for their and their fellow Jews’ safety (though Israeli policy has hurt their situation, not helped it). It’s also fundamentalist Christians who harbor fantasies about calling their “savior” down from the clouds. The US political system happens to be very vulnerable to special interests and those two special interests have been turning US foreign policy against US interests in an even-handed peace in the Middle East for decades.
Speaking of special interests, don’t get me started on Cuba.

kami:
“Yeah, the plain fact that America hasn’t seen the likes of -another- 9/11 falls under hasn’t gotten anything accomplished.”
It certainly does. What he HAS accomplished is to invade and start a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and has proceded to get the world to really dislike us..hate us…in some places, because of “W”S leadership(?) of this country. Our soldiers and this country WILL be paying for that invasion and war for years after he is finally out of office. “W” would invade Iran if he thought he could. Believe me, we are so not safer because he is still in the White House. He has screwed up here at home too, but that is another story. As nnmns pointed out, the agencys that are supposed to protect us would be doing that anyway (we hope) no matter who is trying to run the country.
His bold statement of a peaceful solution with Israel and Palestine before the end of 2008 is another example of his mouth spouting off. He knows that isn’t going to happen but now, after 7 years, he wants to try and rescue his lousy track record. Too little to late. His approval rating (the other day) was 31%, and one of the TV reporters (don’t know which one) said his approval rating with Congress is 18%. Sure, great leader…who really never got elected in 2000 anyway, by popular vote.

Though i am fairly confodent that this will not help cknuck sleep better tonight, I agree with him! At least, I do as far as is response to Larry’s rant. So, maybe ck will simply nap better.
Bush taking credit for holding terrorists at bay is like the man walking through England rubbing sticks together to keep rhinos away. His only proof it works is that there are no wandering rhinos in England.
The mess in Israel has no clear villains and no clear heroes. Self interests and preservation light up the sky like missles. Until there is someone self-less enough to not only suggest a new path, but to lead people along that path, will there ever be any hope. Is Obama the man? Probably not. But I suspect he will at least recognize and support the person when they do finally take the first steps. I am fairly sure none of theother candidates have as clear a vision.

Oh Please!! Go Back to illinois!

I’ve heard more than once the Israeli lobby is only behind AARP in power in Washington.
Such a shame you’re so willing to beieve any anti-Israeli tripe you read.
Don’t forget that Jews here also control the media, the banks, and many other large institutions, clearly to the detriment of Jesus-loving, God-fearing Christians.
You and cknuck act as though you’ve lived in the Middle East and actually know first hand what goes on there.
You say you’re surprised the Pals aren’t more militant.
What you should be thinking is that you’re surprised the Israelis are so remarkably restrained in light of persistent savage attacks from without and within her borders.
The “land-steal” and “land-grab” arguments are fallacious, erroneous, and quite tiresome, as are all your knee-jerk reactions against Israel.
However, we’ve agreed to disagree on the subject many times.
Still – trying to come off as an informed authority does a disservice to yourself and to the truth in general.