Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

I feel so much better. Condi's in Beirut. Nothing like a photo op to make the Middle East calm down.

Bill Scher offers some interesting insight into the conflict.

On June 20, the Associated Press reported that “Hamas is drawing close to a compromise on a document that would implicitly recognize Israel” for the first time. This political effort was spearheaded by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a pragmatist. But Hamas' militant wing, led by politburo chief Khaled Meshal from exile in Syria, did not approve. As a Syrian political analyst reported in last Saturday's Asia Times, Haniyeh was reaching out to Israel because he “wants to run a country” and seeks “to prove that he was not in power to combat Israel but to improve the livelihood of the Palestinians.” Meshal, however, “leads the anti-pragmatism fold in Hamas that still wants to destroy the Jewish state.” So five days after the AP report, an Israeli soldier was abducted in an operation believed to have been directed by Meshal. The Jewish Week reported that the kidnapping had “caught Haniyeh by surprise,” and that the prime minister attempted to order the soldier's release, but was “ignored” by those from his party's militant wing involved in the operation. How did Israel react? It retaliated with military force. Just what Meshal and the militants wanted. … Bill Scher

Reading the rest of Scher's post, you also find this statement from him: Truly
befuddling is why the Bush administration did not use its leverage with the
Israeli government to shore up Hamas pragmatists.

Bill knows his stuff and is a pragmatic man. He truly believes heads of state
should have deep thought processes and understand the complexities of the Middle
East.

Unfortunately, we have George W. Bush in office, a man who does not do nuance,
so I don't find it “befuddling” at all that Bush is ignoring the pragmatists
who want peace. Our president long ago proved he is not a man of peace; nor
is he a man of deep thinking. If he were we wouldn't be in this mess.

Oh, and we wouldn't have Condoleezza Rice showing up doing photo op, light
switch diplomacy a week late. As one of my dearest friends wrote me this morning:

(we) just noticed that ms. condi rice wore her SUNGLASSES ON HER HEAD during her weekend meetings in lebanon. that's really poor form. did she forget where her plane landed?

Exactly.

Now, evidently understanding how obtuse the Administration has been on Israel's
escalation, we get this today. Light switch diplomacy has turned into a
flip flopping foreign policy, because they don't know what they're doing. Again, yes, Israel has every right to defend herself
against Hezbollah, but Olmert's been baited into oblivion, with world opinion against Israel's overreaction.

Today, that message took on a notably different focus, one of concern for the future of Lebanon. Short-term, the Bush Administration is worried about a growing humanitarian crisis. Long-term, it fears that unchecked damage done to Lebanon could create a failed state that would pose even more of a threat to Israel. That was the emphasis of secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's surprise stop in Beirut today, as she sought to make a dramatic show of support for Lebanese leaders staggering under the Israeli bombardment and siege. Rice had planned to fly to Jerusalem, but she diverted to Cyprus at about noon local time, boarded a Chinook helicopter manned by the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit 24, the same unit that was the target of the Marine barracks bombing in 1983. Rice's chopper, armed with tripod-mounted machine guns, landed on U.S. embassy grounds in Beirut at about 1 p.m. local time. She was driven in an armored SUV to the office of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Afterwards, another fast, bumpy ride took her to the home of the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri, a Shia leader. Outside Berri's residential office, Rice said, “I'm deeply concerned about the Lebanese people and what they are enduring. I'm concerned about the humanitarian situation. President Bush wanted me to make this the first stop.” Rice's appearance here in Beirut was aimed as much to send a signal to Israel as one to Lebanon. Although Rice has never wavered from the Administration's position that the U.S. supports Israel's right to defend itself, her rhetoric has taken on a cooler edge as Israel has continued to bombard Lebanon's infrastructure and has blockaded land and sea routes into the country. … The Message Behind Rice's Surprise Visit to Beirut

Bush is backtracking as fast as he can.