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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Some good links at Yourish by Meryl and Soccerdad: Soccerdad comments on Thomas Friedman's take: Annapolis and beyond. Meryl lashes out at some of the spin: Annapolis: The spin is in, and finally Soccerdad rounds up some reaction to a Ralph Peters column: The limits of Annapolis.

Elsewhere, there's Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas won't be able to impose any deal on Gaza.

Two weak leaders just lucky to still have their seats (and in Abbas's case, his head) are sitting around chatting over things that are beside the point. It's not about borders or roadblocks or anything else, it's about Arab society and its inability to accept a non-Muslim state in the region. The well is so poisoned it's almost impossible to get by this. Now they're all invited to the White House. I bet the food is good.

I guess the bottom-line here is that pretty much everyone has been too keyed-up over this one event. The key for activism now is to keep a keen eye on the direction these more quiet negotiations are taking from here on.

Frankly, this low-key approach may just be the way to accomplish something positive if you keep a long term view. It's impossible to tell.

Daniel Froomkin has what's basically a long blog-post and round-up at The Washington Post, here: The White House 'After Party'

Update: Our friend Tom Glennon has it right:

...The bottom line to me is that the entire comedy of this conference is an exercise in futility. The Palestinians do not want an accord, they want Israel to disappear. Almost all of the attendees want the same, even if they do not want to participate directly in Israel’s destruction. Any pronouncement by the three main participants will be considered meaningless due to their weak standing at home and the overwhelming opposition to the continued existence of Israel by most other nations at the table. My only question is how destructive the results can be to our only true friend in the region, and ultimately, to our own interests and influence...

Any possible conference is futile because the other side doesn't want peace, they want to win -- and they're willing to kill their own children to achieve it. I think Bush is right to do about the only thing you can do by keeping expectations low and starting some sort of process that could (though the odds are microscopic) establish a new dynamic and incentive system of its own.

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