Road Map to Hell

I don't want to seem like a Bush hater, but I can not fail to notice that the President is contradicting many promises he has made. For instance, back on June 24, 2002 Bush claimed to have had a "vision" of the route to peace in the Middle East. He premised his vision on four axioms. They were:

1) the Palestinians must select and empower through democratic means a "new leadership"? untainted by terror";

2) "the United States will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state until its leaders engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure";

3) there has to be an end to Palestinian (and other Arab regimes') "incitement" via such outlets as government-controlled media, propaganda and mosques; and

4) "progress" (read, Israeli concessions) must be a function of (Palestinian) performance, not an artificial timetable.

Now Bush has revealed his "Road Map" and it renounces all four premises. He insists that Israel deal with Arafat's puppet and Holocaust denier, the unelected Abbas. In spite of the fact that Abbas has declared that he will take no forceful action against the terrorists, Bush and Powell have reiterated their support for "the process." And, worst of all, Bush and Co. have insisted in the "Road Map" that Israeli concessions be made by the calendar, rather than any meaningful achievements.

No doubt about it, Bush talks a good game at times. And he has a few inner strengths that are laudable in a leader, like self esteem, which is so preferable to the ego that our last poor excuse for a President had. But in the end, he is just another pol. The Jews can not bring much pressure to bear against this pol, since they were only, at best, a hopeful, possible, vote for him to win, if he played his cards right. He is not playing them right just yet. There is one possible hope, and that is that he is saving his strongest support for the Israel situation until election time. It is incumbent upon American Jews to offer him support that he believes can be his, but not unless and until he turns back around on Israel. This Jew is not yet committed to voting against Bush. But if the President intends to rely on his father's strategy, which was that we will vote for him because we can't countenance the alternative, we will have another alternative in the White House, sooner rather than later.

Tip of the hat to Frank Gaffney, Jr.