US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Posted on 06/14/2008 5:15:23 PM PDT by F15Eagle
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here last night for two days of talks and criticized proposed housing expansion in Jerusalem over the Green Line as undermining the US-backed push for peace.
As Rice arrived, she appeared more exasperated with the Israeli construction than she has in past condemnations of announcements of building plans that have often come just before or after her visits in the past 18 months.
"Unfortunately, there have been a few [building plans], whether I'm coming or not," Rice told reporters on her plane. "Look, it's a problem, and it's a problem that we're going to address with the Israelis.
"This is obviously a road map obligation that is not being met," she added.
Her comments came in response to Palestinian anger over the Interior Ministry announcement on Friday of plans to build 1,300 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, which is over the Green Line.
Palestinians temporarily called off peace talks earlier this year over Israeli plans to build homes in east Jerusalem. On Saturday, Palestinians said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would raise the latest announcement with Rice in a meeting Sunday.
"Especially the issue of the new settlement units will be discussed," Abbas aide Nimr Hamad said. "The United States should exert real pressure on Israel and not just make statements. That's what we'll ask for from Secretary Rice."
But an Israeli official dismissed the Palestinian criticism as "merely going through the motions."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said that, "everyone understands that in any final status agreement Jewish neighborhoods will be part of Israel, and creating controversy over these neighborhoods is in no way contributing to moving the peace process forward."
Rice starts her meetings Sunday morning with separate talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak before travelling to Ramallah for discussions with the Palestinian leadership.
She will wrap up her first day of meetings with a dinner in Jerusalem hosted by Olmert.
On the agenda during the talks will be the Palestinian peace track, the situation in Gaza, the contacts with Syria and other regional issues including the efforts to stop Iran's nuclear program.
With just over six months remaining before President George W. Bush leaves office, the Rice visit is part of US efforts to encourage Israel and the Palestinians to clinch a framework final status agreement before the end of the year according to the vision outlined at the Annapolis peace conference in November.
Bush said Friday that he was confident that a Middle East peace deal was possible in 2008, as he delivered the keynote speech of a farewell trip to Europe.
"I firmly believe that, with leadership and courage, a peace agreement is possible this year," Bush said at the Paris headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
During her visit, Rice will hold two separate trilateral meetings. She will meet with the heads of the final status negotiating teams, Livni and her Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurei. The second trilateral gathering will be with Barak and PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.
These talks will focus on steps taken by both sides to implement the road map. Barak will stress that Israel continues with its policy of gradually taking steps to ease the day-to-day life of Palestinians in the West Bank.
AP contributed to this report
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The quest for legacy leads to idiocy.
Ugh. What did Foggy Bottom do to your mind Condi?
When the Palestinians stop firing missiles indiscriminately, then you can complain about the settlements.
I guess this makes her pro-segregation, like the Arabs.
more idiocy from Foggy Bottom
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Then I'm sure Israel would be happy to return any US aid that is being used for this housing. Period.
Move Condi Rice to the Gaza Strip.
I wonder how many "obligations" for the "Road Map to Peace" have been met by the Hamas-run Palestian organization? She never seems "exasperated" about them.
Following common sense is an anathema to being considered for the igNobel Peace Prize.
So is doing the right thing.
Or exercising good judgement.
Apparently, in the the lead up to the Annapolis farce, it came out that winning that very tarnished prize is one of her goals, and that is why Bush went along with it.
Why he continues to waste money on a failed people that wouldn't be able to support themselves, or export little else, other than terrorism, is beyond my comprehensive ability.
Why would someone want to do that to an ally?
I mean for Palestinians it's fine but a friend?
Condi will feel right at home in Gaza. After all, she said she identifies with the Palis and complains more about Israeli settlements than Hamas’ rockets.
Therefore, move Condi to the Gaza Strip.
Why would someone want to do that to an ally?
I repeat my question why would you want the United States Secretary of State in Gaza? Don't like something about her or do you just disagree with US human rights concerns?
As far as rockets and settlements that seems to be a bargain Israel signed onto.
She needs to reflect on how she is working for haSatan. Just who does she think she is ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
C’mon. The only ‘human rights’ concerns is that non of the Arabs wanted the so-called Palestinians, even to the point of Kuwait deporting, reportedly, about 300,000 of them not that long ago.
Never hear about that, do ya?
It’s a wound to rub salt in. Condi knows that. So does Jimmy Carter.
Condi doesn’t have a chance to become a victim in the terrorist roadblocks she’s tried to remove and quite recently I might add.
No, I don’t care for her one bit. She’s a spineless goober apparently more pro-Saudi then Colin Powell.
John Bolton would have been a better choice.
Israel signed on to terrorist rockets?
You must be joking.
I doubt she will ever wake up. If she does, she’d resign immediately before this disastrous Road Map materializes.
It's not massive and fast enough. Let there be much much more of such building, construction in greater Jerusalem, Israel.
I’m sure there are some decent Palestinians that live in fear of the terrorist regimes that rule those areas. They would probably be OK. And they’d be far better off under Israeli rule than Hamas. Or Fatah.
The Gaza Strip proves that.
Bolton huh? got that AIPAC brand on his backside doe he?
So I suppose because Kuwait (!!!) deports people we all should deport people?
Get a clue - think the wheels are falling off the neo con Hummer now wait for gas at $10 a gallon.
These are homes for Jews, and Rice's protests are nothing but an extension of "Judenrein" policies of the Arabs she represents. Meanwhile Arabs build illegals housing all over Jerusalem, squat on other homes illegally, and it is completely ignored by Rice. Typical Jew-hating behavior for the Secretary.
To be truly peaceful there are times you must join together for a purpose, and acting together act with determination and persistence to take down the violent.
Let the Muslim Arabs within and without Israel do that, then there could be peace.
As the the only child of Presbyterian minister, one would think otherwise.
Please read your own post #19 where you mention Kuwait deporting 300,000....now it's displacing what will it be tomorrow resettling?
My friend your defensiveness is very interesting and illustrates a state of mind that I was interested in probing. We'll talk more later k?
Still nothing important going on in North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, Russia, Darfur, South America, etc., I see. Isn’t it great that Condi has had so much time and attention these last four years to devote to the pressing and burning world issue of Israeli home construction?
She and all others in our government who natter on endlessly about anything Israel does sound like complete morons. Notwithstanding the Wahabi Lobby, using the prestige and power of the USA to berate Israel constantly over this issue and the pipe dream “peace process” is embarrassing.
Not for that reason, but if in that condition, then yes.
My thoughts exactly.
I am sick of Condoleeza and her capitulations to the terrorists... And shame on GW putting her up to it.
I was never talking about anything but how nobody, including you, is upset that Kuwait deported 300,000 Palestinians.
fyi
Oh, well.
Build faster & bigger.
If it’s this bad now, I don’t even wanna KNOW what Obama would do....
Canaanite Condi strikes again.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Persecuted Arabs, as she was as a little girl under Jim Crow. That's why she appreciates their plight, so she says. You might recall that at Annapolis the Saudis balked at entering the building on an equal footing with Jews. Condi sent the Israeli delegantion in through the side/service entrance. IMO they should have gone home, but I suppose it wasn't worth an incident.
May God have mercy on our nation as our leadership takes sides with the enemies of Zion.
Isaiah 25:10-12
“For on this mountain the
hand of the Lord will rest,
And Moab shall be trampled
down under Him,
As straw is trampled down
for the refuse heap.
And He will spread out His
hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to
swim,
And He will bring down their
pride
Together with the trickery of
their hands.
The fortress of the high fort
of your walls
He will bring, down, lay low,
And bring to the ground,
down to the dust.
Exposing virulent anti-semite racists for what they are is always worth “an incident.”
The kind of evil arrogance that would bring about a scenario such as the one you describe must be opposed at every step, or it will consume you in the darkness it represents.
I truly believe that the Saudi kingdom is one of the primary focal points for evil in the world today.
We know their citizens had the majority hand in 9/11; that’s for certain.
LOL
We certainly know that Obama lied to AIPAC with a “clarification” the next day about what he “really” meant given through a subordinate.
That’s exactly the kind of stuff he’ll pull all along.
Our government needs to leave Israel alone. Every time the issue of giving up land is forced on Israel we suffer a major weather event in the U.S.
She acts like she’s a Replacement Theologian. In any case, God is not going to let them waltz over the land He has brought the Jews back to.
That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me that most of the nations of the world will abandon Israel in favor of Arab oil. It also won’t surprise me to see some sort of “peace deal” that divides the land of Israel.
Which might even seem to “work” ... at first ...
islamic Arabs gave more money to Palestinian suicide bomber families, individually, than anything else. Because the love to rub salt in the wound and keep up the war against Israel.
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