PM Olmert to urge Bush: Make Hamas pariah, back PA Chair

[bemildred]

Man, you just don't know where to start with stuff like this. Mostly for the way it is put, as though it is up to Bush whether anyone backs or works with Abbas or not. What is Olmert, a potted plant?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, slated to hold talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday, will urge the president to focus on supporting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and isolating Hamas, according to officials accompanying Olmert on his trip to the United States.

The final admission that the previous policy (of isolating and ignoring everybody until they all came to their senses and agreed to obey) was an utter failure.

"We want to make Hamas a pariah and prevent it joining the international game," a source in the prime minister's entourage said.

In other words, the goal is the same, it's just not working very well.

---

The EU also strongly condemned what it described as a "violent overthrow" in Gaza by the "Hamas militias."

Yup, only the US and Yurpean powers are allowed to do "violent overthrows". Internal revolts and overthrows are prohibited unless prior authorization is given.
---

"We support the establishment of the national unity government," saod Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

So on the one hand the Chinese are said to "support for Abbas new government", and on the other hand they are quoted calling for a "national unity government", which Abbas' new rump government decidedly is not.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/872633.html

[bemildred]

1. Abbas stole the comeback show

WASHINGTON - It was supposed to be Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's big comeback. A shot with U.S. President George W. Bush in the Rose Garden, an image that would lead all Israeli television viewers to realize that Olmert has come out of the crisis and that his leadership has been accepted anew by the president of the most important world power.

But this week will be remembered not for Olmert's comeback, but for that of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - the same Abu Mazen whose weakness was a source of laughs for Israeli officials, the same Abu Mazen who lost almost half the Palestinian Authority just last week, the same Abu Mazen who recently called off his meeting with Olmert in anger. That same Abu Mazen has suddenly become the object of Israeli and American hopes.

Since landing in the United States, Olmert's delegation has depicted Abbas as the last bulwark keeping out the flood of Islamic fundamentalism and preventing Hamas from getting a foothold in the West Bank. The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip caught Israel unprepared, although it shouldn't have surprised anyone.

Does this sort of lack of clue sound familiar?

Israel's initial reaction was confused, and dealt with the deployment of an international force in Rafah, as though any country wants to send its troops to clash with a well-organized and well-armed terrorist movement. Only a few days later did Olmert provide a different response: The Hamas victory in Gaza is an achievement for Israel, because it creates the opportunity to hold talks with the friendly Fatah government in the West Bank, and breaks the political freeze that resulted from the embargo of the Hamas government.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/872382.html