PM to ministers: Keep mum on Baker report, it is internal U.S. matter

[Poll_Blind]

From Ha'aretz:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday instructed his cabinet to avoid discussing the Baker-Hamilton report on the war in Iraq, calling it an internal American issue.

The bipartisan report, released last Wednesday, says that the stabilization of Iraq depends, among other things, on addressing the Israeli-Arab conflict. It also calls for U.S. dialog with Iran and Syria.

"We heard the position of President Bush and there is no need to add anything to that. I do not recommend comments on this sensitive topic," he said during the weekly cabinet meeting.
--snip--

Don't talk about it and maybe it will go away.

PB

[bemildred]

1. I think he was told to shutup.

Sticking his nose into an argument about whether Israel sticks it's nose in too much could be counterproductive. Of course in that context, your comment makes sense.

Then there is this idea:

News Analysis: Israel is already borrowing from Baker's playbook

NEW YORK: The day after the Iraq Study Group's report on Iraq was released, Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rejected the part that urged the United States to refocus on the Israeli-Arab conflict because all Middle East issues were, it said, "inextricably linked."

Olmert responded, "The U.S.'s problems in Iraq are entirely independent of the problems between us and the Palestinians."

Yet Olmert's own recent statements and actions belie his argument.

Partly in anticipation of a U.S. shift in policy and partly out of longstanding and growing concern over Iran, he has been pursuing an approach to Israeli interests that involves reaching out to the Palestinians and Iraq's neighbors. It could almost have been taken from the playbook written by the former secretary of state, James Baker 3rd, a principal co-author of the report.

IHT

[Tom Joad]

2. Bush will never, ever, say anything that will upset Israeli right-wing

government, so why indeed would they need to say anything about this. Bush and Olmert are one.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[Poll_Blind]

4. No, I think they're both just incompetent assholes. Why the blood-libel?

I thought those sorts of simple-minded accusations were best left out of arguments in regards to everyone, not just Jewish folks.

PB

[Tom Joad]

5. What does this have to do about anyone being Jewish?

What has that got to do with govt. leaders of these two places ideology?

My point, and what seems to be Olmert's point, is that since Bush supports their policies (can't think of a single time Bush has seriously questioned these policies, or Israel has criticized Bush policies), no use saying anything about what Baker says, since nothing Baker says will be implemented by Bush.

Your post seems quite perverse, A.

[Tom Joad]

6. In the US, most Jewish voters have consistantly voted against Bush.

Perhaps you were not aware of that.

There are Jewish activists in Israel who have consistantly supported human rights, and spoken out against the policies of their own govt and the imperial policies of Bush.

But to conflate the current govt leadership of Israel with being Jewish is beyond the pale.