Likudnik Hawks Work to Undermine Annapolis
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - Despite near-universal scepticism about the prospects for launching a serious, new Middle East peace process at next week's Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks close to the Likud Party leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, isn't taking any chances.
Hard-liners associated with the American Enterprise Institute and Freedom's Watch, a bountifully funded campaign led by prominent backers of the Republican Jewish Coalition, among other like-minded groups, are mounting a concerted attack against next week's meeting which they fear could result in pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions.
The attack, which comes amid steadily growing neo-conservative fears that the administration of President George W. Bush is becoming increasingly "realist" in its last year in office, is being directed primarily against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, rather than the president himself.
Rice, who has devoted an unprecedented amount of time and travel in the past several months to nudging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas toward agreement on a framework that will deliver a two-state solution, said she hoped to achieve that goal by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"The parties have said they are going to make efforts to conclude in this president's term, and it's no secret that means about a year," she told reporters, noting that next Tuesday's meeting is designed to launch an intensive negotiating effort over the coming months. "That's what we'll try and do. Nobody can guarantee that -- all you can do is make your best effort."
But such an effort is anathema to hard-line neo-conservatives whose presence in the Bush administration has dwindled steadily over the past two years, but who retain influence primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and key members of the White House national security staff, notably Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams...[Open in new window]
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - Despite near-universal scepticism about the prospects for launching a serious, new Middle East peace process at next week's Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks close to the Likud Party leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, isn't taking any chances.
Hard-liners associated with the American Enterprise Institute and Freedom's Watch, a bountifully funded campaign led by prominent backers of the Republican Jewish Coalition, among other like-minded groups, are mounting a concerted attack against next week's meeting which they fear could result in pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions.
The attack, which comes amid steadily growing neo-conservative fears that the administration of President George W. Bush is becoming increasingly "realist" in its last year in office, is being directed primarily against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, rather than the president himself.
Rice, who has devoted an unprecedented amount of time and travel in the past several months to nudging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas toward agreement on a framework that will deliver a two-state solution, said she hoped to achieve that goal by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"The parties have said they are going to make efforts to conclude in this president's term, and it's no secret that means about a year," she told reporters, noting that next Tuesday's meeting is designed to launch an intensive negotiating effort over the coming months. "That's what we'll try and do. Nobody can guarantee that -- all you can do is make your best effort."
But such an effort is anathema to hard-line neo-conservatives whose presence in the Bush administration has dwindled steadily over the past two years, but who retain influence primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and key members of the White House national security staff, notably Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams...[Open in new window]
posted by Dan at 3:49 PM
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