Thank you for your incisive post.
I do hope that Secretary Rice was taken aback by Israel's resolve. As I've posted elsewhere, I am not a military man, and I am not in a position to say what is going to work.
I am concerned, though, that Prime Minister Olmert has kept on the agenda his desire to destroy Israeli communities in the West Bank in order to turn them over to the Palestinian arabs. I wonder whether Israel's reliance on its air force instead of ground troops is an attempt by Prime Minister Olmert to demonstrate that it is not necessary to retain land in order to protect a country.
It is perplexing, isn't it, that only yesterday it seemed that Prime Minister Olmert was being bullied by Secretary Rice into standing down for 48 hours. The next thing I know, Secretary Rice is called back to Washington, President Bush gives a very strong statement of support for Israel in the fight ... and then Prime Minister Olmert announces today that we will see NO cease fire in the near future!!
I wonder whether President Bush brought her back to dress her down.
Condi got taken by SURPRISE BIG TIME IN ISRAEL.....
A senior diplomat, who spoke to me only on the condition of anonymity said, “This is getting like a bad Tom Clancy novel.”
“There is a sense now that Secretary of State Rice was taken aback, taken by surprise by the Israeli resolve.”
SecState going to the White House for dinner with her boss tonight....
See: "A Bad Tom Clancy Novel" at:
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/