horse of george

Jordan rejects Obama's astoundingly naive call for Arab nations to make good will gestures towards Israel in order to facilitate peace negotiations. Ok, this has to stop - it's part of Arab culture to hate Jews, to believe Israel is evil, to believe it must be laid low, not necessarily destroyed as Iran, when it gets excited, likes to imagine happening, but at least diminished in some significant way. You can't change that - well, you can, but not simply by asking for it. All Arab leaders are beholden to this culture, some because they share the sentiment, the rest because they know they're doomed if they don't - and so, short of some climactic, epoch making war that fundamentally changes this dynamic, there can never be peace in the Mideast. The most you can hope for is all these fucking assholes merely tolerating each other and that can only happen if Israel is strong and the Arabs accept that Israel's strength renders all possible alternatives to that not worth the pursuit - but even that modest accommodation is a big fucking 'if'.

So let's stop all this nonsense. Obama, your power is entirely rhetorical, it ain't real [although in some ways it's all too real] - time to dismount the fucking high horse and get your fucking hands dirty - or just give the job to Hillary. I know you had this, in your mind, great plan to shit on Israel and get all the Muslims on your side because, gosh, you're just such a special fucking prick - but that was lunacy, the Jews knew it was lunacy and they tried to tell you that, but I guess in the end it's not that easy to tell the leader of the free world that he's fucking crazy - ok, water under the bridge - it's all out in the open now so let's try and move on like adults who have a modicum of a clue as to what the fuck they're doing!! Jesus. It's fucking depressing.

[or as an essayist on Foreign Policy website wrote, awkwardly employing no profanities whatsoever - possibly it was the writer's first attempt at a true academic style:

"I had always believed that there were moderates within Fatah -- like Natsheh -- who supported peace negotiations and sought reconciliation with Israel. Even with the ascendance of Hamas, one could always point to a "peace constituency" among the Palestinians. But when people like Rafik Natsheh start denying Israel's right to exist, it's a sign that the Palestinian political center has shifted. Moderates still exist and the PA continues to take some positive steps -- such as removing militant preachers from West Bank mosques and cooperating with Israel on security matters -- but its actions seem more focused on preventing Hamas inroads than promoting peace with Israel. Indeed, recent reports indicate that the PA is currently naming streets in the West Bank after terrorists.

Sixteen years after the Oslo Accords -- and following repeated claims of Oslo's death -- Natsheh's comments confirm the end of that peace process. For years, Washington has placed its hopes in Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president who also serves as Fatah's leader. But in the absence of any denial coming from Abbas, the comments of Natsheh -- a close associate of Abbas -- stand as Fatah's official position. Today, Fatah may be better than Hamas, but the organization is clearly no panacea. Based on Fatah's disposition toward Israel, it is all but assured that a Palestinian national unity government will not advance negotiations. The sooner the Obama administration recognizes Fatah's shortcomings, the sooner it can start developing a new paradigm for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking."]