Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Zeev Hed]

I really think that Bush erred with some of that statement. He was absolutely right to state upfront that if there is a "right of return" it should be to within a future Palestinian state, not to within Israel, but that is as far as he should have gone. That would be in accordance with the stated policy of the US since to 70'. Granting a priori that now, instead of the 95% (of the pre 1967 border) being the potential future Palestine, the deal rejected by Arafat some three years ago, it is down to about 85%. It fits within the many posts (see the last #msg-2872372) I have written on the subject (time s not on the side of the Palestinians), but it is bad politics to enunciate such outside private negotiations between the parties. The problem, of course, is that is no one to negotiate with on the Palestinian side, and possibly, that enunciation was an "act of genius", which demonstrates to the Palestinians once more that time is not on their side. I surely don't think that pronouncement was a "slip of the tongue", so someone in the WH must have thought long and hard how to word that communication. I am really puzzled on that one. I posted earlier (#msg-2874327) what kind of communication I would have drafted.