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Consider this excerpt from yesterday's Washington Post about Bush's ME diplomacy. This convinced me that Bush caved to the Saudis:

Aides said the one leader in the region who has earned Bush's respect is Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who forcefully challenged the president over his handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., in April of last year.

In a scene that one senior Bush adviser later likened to "a near-death experience," Abdullah arrived at Crawford with a book showing pictures of Palestinian suffering and a 10-minute videotape of images of children shot and crushed by Israelis that had appeared on Arab television.

The adviser said Abdullah spoke eloquently about what these images meant -- conveying a respect for life rather than a hatred of Israel -- and then laid it on the line for Bush: Was he going to do something about this or not?

Current and former officials said Abdullah put it this way: I will work with you if you are willing to deal with this issue. If you can't, let me know now. No matter what, I'll always say positive things about you in public. But I have to make certain calculations on my own if you aren't going to step up to the plate.

Bush replied that he was working on a vision and would present it soon, the current and former officials said.

"It certainly made an impact on the president," one official said.

In a scene that one senior Bush adviser later likened to "a near-death experience," Abdullah arrived at Crawford with a book showing pictures of Palestinian suffering and a 10-minute videotape of images of children shot and crushed by Israelis that had appeared on Arab television.

Which Abdullah did after Sharon hosted Powell, and showed him pictures of homicide bombing victims, and Powell reeled. The Arabs never have an original idea. :)

So who was the reporter in the Post? That might be revealing, as most of their ME reporting is biased against Israel.

Bush replied that he was working on a vision and would present it soon, the current and former officials said.
"It certainly made an impact on the president," one official said.

Pathetically manipulative with a pitiful video propaganda cue that I myself can fabricate on a fast midranger.
You noticed that this isn't Bush of the Iarq war, the clever wording and ideas support seem to be missing, and now he sounds like he slid to a level of a third-rate State Department arabist duracell bunny.
Will his "vision" be the kind that'll again require two out-of-sync push-pulling "interpeters", Fleisher and Powell, for his "continuous-contiguous palestinian state" thinking process?