The Obama administration's intelligence failure
I have already alluded to the fact that with the resignation of the suit-and-tie-clad 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad, the West in general and the United States in particular may wish to reconsider the billions of dollars in 'aid' that they have promised to the 'Palestinian Authority.' Fayyad is apparently the only 'Palestinian' who might be worthy of being trusted with money.The American Thinker reports on the flip side of the same coin: The complete failure of American intelligence to see Fayyad's resignation coming down the pike.
Team Obama did no better when it came to keeping an eye on Palesitnian political maneuvers to form a new government in Ramallah. After all, only a few days ago, during Clinton's visit to Egypt, Jerusalem and Ramallah, our secretary of state went out of her way to exalt with the most fulsome of praise and admiration Salam Fayyad as the rock on which she would build her determined lurch toward a two-state solution. Go back and read the transcripts of Hillary gushing about Fayyad as a bobby-soxer might have about Frank Sinatra.I'm sure Chas will fix all that.
Neither the media nor Obama's intelligence people -- another disaster in the making -- were there to tip off the president and his secretary of state that, with a Fatah-Hamas "unity'' government in the making, Salam Fayyad's days were numbered. After all, Hamas leaders have made no secret of the fact that they hate his guts and see him as a Western stooge.
Fayyad was simply taken for granted as the one indispensable Palestinian peace partner by the media and the administration. Now both are shocked, shocked to find out suddently that Palestinians are about to exchange Fayyad for another notch in Hamas's ascendancy. If you read the NY Times or the Washington Post, or watch the network news shows, you can be forgiven for wondering how this could have been so egregiously overlooked.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 PM
3 Comments:
The only people who still have faith in the two-state solution are in the Obama Administration and the Europeans. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians want to move forward with it. If Obama's people couldn't see Salam Fayyad's downfall, what makes any one think they can get their readings of the Taliban and Iran right? That $5 billion sitting in the aid pipeline isn't going to be distributed any time soon.
With five billion here and five billion there, soon Obama's going to wind up wasting real money!
Asher, all the billions in aid given previously to the Palestinians have not moderated them or brought them closer to statehood. I think Daniel Pipes made the point a few years ago the international assistance came with a perverse set of consequences that happened to reinforce Palestinian extremism and to discourage the Palestinians from taking responsibility for their own lives. What's needed is cut off the aid so they understand if they attack Israel they will get nothing and if they start building up their society instead of trying to destroy Israel through terror, the seeds of peace will take root. The chances of that happening are slim to none.
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