Back before the invasion of Iraq......

[ElsewheresDaughter]

the Bush administration obviously felt that their WMD rationale was faulty, so they piled on a few other reasons for the invasion. Foremost among the second tier excuses was that it would make the entire middle east safer and increase the chances of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. So how's that working out? Not well. Apparently Palestinian terrorists are unbowed by the US show of force in Iraq, and the payments they were receiving from Saddam Hussein don't seem to be the prime motivating factor in bombings. Of course, the Administration and the State Department knew this from the beginning. They were bullshitting us then. And they're not about to admit to any failures now.

Welcome to the new safer Middle East!

Israel To Raze More Then 100 Palestinian Homes...
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-5-2004_pg7_4


SHUNEH: US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday stepped up calls for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to hand over control of the Palestinian security services if there was to be any movement towards ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a State Department official said.

The official said Powell had told Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei and foreign minister Nabil Shaath as well as other Arab leaders in meetings here that there could be no progress on the internationally backed “roadmap” for peace until and unless Arafat ceded such control.

Israel’s Supreme Court imposed a temporary ban on the demolition of homes in a Gaza refugee camp where the army plans to raze dozens more to widen a corridor it controls on the Egyptian border, a court spokesman said on Saturday.

Israeli forces quit Rafah on Saturday after scouring the camp for the remains of their troops who were killed. Israeli troops have destroyed more than 100 houses in Rafah over the last two days, a Palestinian human rights group said on Saturday.

“The army has completely destroyed more than 100 houses in Rafah,” said Raji al-Sourani, head of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, shortly after Israeli troops pulled out of the town. The army said it demolished homes used as shooting positions by militants who killed seven of its troops. One building had collapsed during an exchange of fire with gunmen holed up inside, it said.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. shameful kick...since i saw another thread started on same topic