My political boggle for today...

[pyrephox]

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she found it "hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is in fact the impediment to peace."

Um. Y'know. Well. Just /possibly/, that whole 'talking' thing, it might, y'know, have an effect on them being an impediment to peace. I mean, hey, crazy idea when you've got nukes, I know, but give it a shot.

Comments

[cpip.livejournal.com]

It has buildings and a government which purports to (a) be elected and (b) represent the will of its people.

Those things could quite easily be changed.

[patpandahat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure Israel invading another Arab 'nation' would be greeted with the same cheer and well-wishing their invasion of Lebanon brought them.

Remind me again, who called for those Palestinian elections? Who then refused to acknowledge the winners of those elections because they weren't the people we were supposed to like?

Who has refused to negotiate with Hamas and then threw out "have not proven to be a good faith negotiating partner" when they didn't take the first bad faith offer given?

If you're going to at least come to States' defense, quit making State look like an asshole.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I suspect by now Israel's used to not getting cheer and well-wishing when they attack other nations, whether they've got a reason or not.

As for "quit making State look like an asshole" -- Why? That's not the government that the US wanted in there. What was wanted was a government who would be amenable to negotiations on the terms that the US and Israel were setting. Obviously, that didn't happen. So State's trying the stick approach, since Hamas hasn't shown much interest in carrots that aren't acceptable to the other party in the negotiations. Is it working? Not really. Will the carrot approach work better? Probably not at prices the administration is willing to pay, and in this instance, I'm not sure I disagree with them.

[patpandahat.livejournal.com]

Because we should honestly be able to engage in international geopolitics at a level higher than "petulant child hits others and holds its breath until it gets what it wants". We didn't get a complicit puppet-Palestinian government, so now, to show them how much bigger we are, we're using a stick.

Why? Because we're not willing to haggle.

It's either Israel's sit-at-the-table offer, or nothing. And that's stupid. Because it clearly isn't working, but we're too damned stubborn to try something else. Why? Because they might not be at prices the U.S. or the Likudniks in Israel are willing to offer. And rather then say "well, maybe they should swallow their damned pride and negotiate for a better future," we're just stuck with the same 50-year long bullshit.

And I full-well disagree with that furtherance of bloodshed.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Very good for your disagreement.