1. BobW said:

There were no parallel steps in the Roadmap.

The treaty doctrine of rebus stanabus sic - a substantial change of circumstances - was renounced by the GOI. This is both clear and fair. It's clear that the situation is accepted - notwithstanding presentations for public consumption - and fair. GOI does not seek a Jewish Israel. Israel's political rulers seek a secular state. The US supports this political doctrine. US support allows for a world class standard of living for some Israelis. One detriment to GOI was the requirement to forfeit territory and some aspects of sovereignty.

A roadmap is useless for ocean navigation.

Kol tuv,
BobW

2. A Time to Speak said:

Rice's bullying of Israel's government is nasty and vulgar -- a carbon copy of her real boss James E. Baker III.

The government of Israel's obedience to her is shameful.

3. Ted Belman said:

I think you missed it A Time to Speak.

I am suggesting that the bullying is theatre. The US gets to look good while Israel gets to fight terror and build settlements. Furthermore the economic plans are being implemented which may change the calculus.

Its a win-win. Except if you don't want Israel to give up the West Bank even for real peace.

4. Charles Martel said:

I am always dubious of the joint Bush/Sharon "Master Plan" hypothesis when I see Israel stake out a position, i.e., no convoys until rocket fire ceases, connecting Maale Adumim with Jerusalem, no Palestinian prisoner releases, etc. only to roll over when the US applies pressure. Events are inconsistent with the notion that the US and Israel are on the same page.

Optimists prefer to search for the silver lining rather than take an umbrella.

5. Leonard said:

It was extremely misguided for the Israeli government to have agreed to the Convoys particularly whilst there is no cessation of terror. Gaza has now become an independent terrorist fiefdom and there should be no requirement for Israel whatsoever to link it to the West Bank that forms part of Israel. I suspect it was Peres who agreed to it without any safeguards.

6. Bill Narvey said:

Ted, I do not think we are in a position to really know what is going on, so to that extent your views while representing a plausible guess, remain just a guess.

There are those who want to believe that Israeli leaders of every stripe would never compromise Israel's interests if they could avoid it and so look to blame America for pressuring Israel to compromise while America continues to score brownie points on the world stage as being pro-Israel and an honest broker.

With the first Oslo accords, we saw Israeli's desperation for peace in its negotiations and American pressure or support some might say, encouraging Israel to take a risk for peace with the result that Israel compromised its position badly in return for empty Palestinian promises.

Since then we have indeed seen American pressure being applied and Israeli leaders caving. It however was Sharon taking the unilateral step of disengagement, which looks more and more like he did that on his own without American intervention, at least not then.

Now we see Sharon planning an exit strategy from the West bank, saying he won't without real concessions, but then again in the last election he said he would not unilaterally disengage and did just that without ever being required to fully explain his thinking. Still without clearly saying why he wanted to do it, he got a majority of the Knesset and the Israeli public behind him.

Many pundits from inside and outside Israel call Sharon a liar. Some call him a realist. Many Israeli politicians don't exactly seem to know what is going on with Sharon. There also seems to be difficulty accepting Netanyahu's views or other views on what Israel should do.

It seems Israeli political leadership is presently in disarray in terms of no party having a clear vision of how to get to peace from where Israel is today and Israel presently suffers a great deal of stress from uncertainty and lack of clear leadership with clear goals and means to those ends.

Palestinians have nothing really to offer Israel with the exception of changing their charter, joining with Israel to destroy the terrorists amongst them and cease inciting Jew hatred while at the same time re-educating Palestinians in tolerance, respect and all those nice sounding Judeo-Western concepts.

Though these are the things Palestinians have to offer and indeed have promised as their end of the bargains made with Israel, they have delivered on none of their promises and continue to instead increase their demands for more Israeli concessions.

It seems that America and the rest of the Western world, have given the Palestinians a pass on all their breached promises and so far, the Palestinians have a perfect score of 100% in that regard, so it should not be a surprise, as troubling as it is, that Palestinians continue to raise demands. There is no one to tell them otherwise!

Israelis and Israeli politicians for the longest time have seemed confused, off balance and really have not offered any clear game plan for peace that allows Israel to be vital and strong going forward.

The Americans are applying pressure for more compromise, but given the way Israel has conducted itself over the last several years and in particular now, it leaves one to scratch their heads so often wondering what have Bush, or Rice, or Sharon, or Netanyahu, or etc. been smoking or been thinking to come up with whatever new plan or vision for Palestinian-Israeli peace is the flavour of the day or month.

While I am very upset with the Bush administration as of late, I no longer know whether they alone are deserving of censure for creating so much uncertainty, confusion and lack of balance in Israel politically and within the electorate as well.

Perhaps Sharon deserves some of the blame.

Perhaps other Israeli leaders also bear some blame.

Perhaps diaspora Jews also bear blame as well. It seems like Israel is in desperate need of friends and support, yet many of the Diaspora Jews seem to focus on their petty differences between themselves and with Israel and fail to see the prime directive of ensuring Israel can survive no matter what forces seek to weaken and destroy it.

The pressure Israel is being put under seems to be that it is expected to set its table in the presence of its enemies without any real assurances that its enemies won’t come like the wolf on the fold, first gobbling up Israel’s food and then gobbling up Israel .

Perhaps, America does deserve all the blame because the pressure it puts Israel under has left Israel virtually rudderless on a sea of uncertainty where the political winds of America and the West seem to be blowing the Israeli ship towards the rocks of disaster.

I just do not know for certain any more, but of this I am certain.

Israel does need united support in many ways from world wide Jewry which support can only help to restore some balance and strengthen Israel.

One of the last things Israel needs is a diaspora Jewish cheering section for the Palestinians or Jewish advocates who in a selfish self aggrandizing affirmation of their own sense of humanity and universality demand even handed mutual fairness from both Palestinians and Israelis, but ignore that Palestinians are only for fairness if it comes their way.

One of the other last things Israel needs is diaspora Jewish critics of Israel’s efforts at trying to resist American and world pressures to concede more and more to the Palestinians in return for which, to quote my beloved Baba, Alava Sholem, Israel has only ever received "nothing with nothing".