Of course:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday the Obama administration remains open to negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, despite intransigence from Tehran... Clinton said it is clear that administration efforts to engage Iran in talks to restrain its nuclear program in 2009 fell short... Obama had said that if Iran did not respond positively to his overtures by the start of 2010 he would move toward tougher sanctions. Clinton said the administration is consulting with other nations about new sanctions, but she stressed that this does not mean the administration is abandoning its effort to start a dialogue with Iran. There is no hard-and-fast deadline for Iran to respond, she said.

I'm a little sad they're giving up on deadlines. Iranian laughter in the face of Obama's blustering - plus the inevitable US crumbling - made for some easy content. Though the WH probably didn't have a choice now that China, after years of evading existing sanctions, just said no to new UN sanctions. So Obama's oh-so-sophisticated charade - that there were ever any "genuine sticks" behind all of the "genuine carrots" - wasn't going to last much longer.

Of course the Iranians still sneeringly chortled in victory about how they agree with Clinton that sanctions are meaningless. They've been so emboldened by this WH's appeasement that they're now setting their own deadlines on negotiations, a nice little demonstration of just how brazen they've gotten:

Iran's foreign minister warned the West on Saturday that it had one month to accept Iran's counterproposal to a deal brokered by the United Nations aimed at slowing the Iranian nuclear program, or else Iran would begin further enriching its nuclear fuel stockpile on its own. The comments by the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, were broadcast on state television and presented as an "ultimatum" to the West just two days after Iran missed a deadline set by the United States and its allies to accept a deal that was brokered in October in Geneva.

They're also holding large-scale military exercises next month, right about the time that their "ultimatum" will be expiring. No worries though. This isn't anything that the WH's vaunted "targeted sanctions" - specifically designed to be watered down - can't fix right up. Smart power and all the rest.

References and related after the jump...

At least we can be sure they'll get a full pat-down on their way over. Maybe:

The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a "diversity visa" lottery -- a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a "serious national security threat" that has gone unchecked for years. Ostensibly designed to increase ethnic diversity among immigrants, the program invites in thousands of poorly educated laborers with few job skills -- and that's only the beginning of its problems, according to lawmakers and government investigations.

The State Department, for its part, insists that it's awesome it is to bring in poor and uneducated - and often unassimilable - immigrants from countries crawling with jihadists. Because they won't be anything like that "model assimilated immigrant" in Denmark, who ended up shooting two Jews in a mall because they were just too Jewish. They're going to be different kinds of model assimilated immigrants.

On the upside, this isn't going to make or break American border security. It's pretty frustrating when you consider to whom the State Department is denying visas, but it's not nearly as damaging as the administration's broader anti-enforcement policies. And trust the Council on Foreign Relations to have someone who thinks that loosening border enforcement is the height of nuanced sophistication. From the policy community that brought you circa 2006 op-eds about how Ahmadinejad wasn't a problem, 2009 op-eds about how locking down our borders is a wingnut overreaction to 9/11:

The Obama administration quietly announced last week that it would overturn one of the harsh immigration enforcement measures enacted by the Bush administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks... The measure is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the Obama DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the past decade. The administration in August launched an overhaul of the immigration detention system... The Obama administration's new policy, which will end such routine incarceration, had been urged by everyone from the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. And there is no reason to believe that the risks will rise significantly. There is considerable evidence, for instance, that alternative programs to monitor those released will ensure that they comply with whatever ruling a judge finally reaches.

Napolitano refused to even use the word "terrorism" during her March Congressional hearings, a lack of seriousness that more or less confirms Cheney's "they're trying to pretend we are not at war" criticism. From airline security to border security, it does kind of seem like they're happily traipsing through a pre-9/11 world.

Well, except for the 9/11 Commission's calls for new bureaucratic layers, federal expansion, and thousands of new government workers. That's a change Democrats - to judge by their weirdly coordinated defenses of Napolitano - seem to regard with something almost approaching warmth.

References and related after the jump...

I'll be broadcasting 2009's last TOCS episode live from Bulgaria, Bulgaria being a country that suffered for five centuries under the Ottoman yoke and - emerging from that and later from the Iron Curtain - has just committed more troops to the West's efforts in Afghanistan. That's in no way relevant to tonight's topics, though New Europe/Old Europe divides are always worth emphasizing both as matters of ideology and of Iranian weapons range. In any case - 6:30pm PST, live from Bulgaria, tune in via the Blog Talk Radio page to participate in the chat room and get on the air.

As a way of closing out a tension-soaked year, the show is shaping up to be what the kids call a doozy. Prof. Gerald Steinberg - NGO Monitor President, Bar Ilan University Political Studies chair, and bane of conspiracy addled human rights organizations inclined to hire Nazi-obsessed anti-Israel partisans - discusses the role NGO's are playing in the multi-pronged assault on Israel's legitimacy. Divestment, lawfare/universal jurisdiction, and government funding of pro-Palestinian NGO's are all discussed, plus the prospects for pushing back against those efforts.

The weekly call with Dan Diker will focus on a couple of recent revelatory US/Israeli flashpoints. The first is this stunt that US consul officials just pulled, where they tried to run over an IDF soldier. I actually need to do a full post about this because the US Consulate in Jerusalem is the de facto US embassy to the Palestinian Authority, and this is the second time in two years they've pulled this kind of nonsense. Dan has more than a few comments on that point.

The second incident is this flap over Israel's retaliation to the terrorists who murdered Meir Chai. The US demanded "answers" from Israel because the operation happened in Area A, where US-trained and funded Palestinian forces were supposed to have control. In Dan's JPost op-ed on the controversy - for which he provides context and background on today's show - he pointed out the idiosyncrasy of that demand:

I just checked this to be sure, and "AfPak" definitely stands for Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's the region in which we're currently engaged in a hot war that we're desperately trying not to lose. So - at least in theory - alienating the leaders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan would be one of those geopolitical blunders that we've been assured were hallmarks of the Bush administration. Smart...

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai questioned the reliability of the United States as a partner Sunday, as he fought off criticism of his government's legitimacy following fraud-marred elections... underscoring the political headache that Washington faces if Karzai wins a run-off against Abdullah next month, Karzai pointed the finger at the United States in a separate, pre-recorded CNN interview. "Is the United States a reliable partner with Afghanistan? Is the West a reliable partner with Afghanistan?" Karzai asked... The comments appeared to allude to Karzai's longstanding criticism of civilian deaths in US air strikes, and to President Barack Obama's still unresolved review of US strategy and his commander's request for up to 40,000 more US troops.

... power:

In Lahore, Pakistan, today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a blunt message to six prominent Pakistani newspaper editors. Asked by Asha'ar Rehman, an editor of Dawn, why the US war on terror is so localized to Pakistan, Clinton did not mince words. "Al-Qaeda has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002," she said. "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to... there are issues that not just the United States but others have with your government and with your military security establishment.''

Which is not to say that Clinton was wrong to be concerned about everything from Pakistan's internal stability to the reliability of their security forces. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is most definitely not secure. And it's no secret that the ISI has some gentlemen who are disinclined to view the West favorably. When Pakistan finally becomes a failed state - and ignoring the geopolitical situation its economic freefall will ensure that it does - things are going to get real dicey real fast.

But Clinton's job as a diplomat is to express those concerns in a way that doesn't cause potentially irreparable rifts with countries we rely on for military victory. Though she did find the time to blame it all on Bush! So at least there was that.

There's a much broader discussion to be had about the sheer self-absorbed gullibility of liberal foreign policy experts. They've spent the last 7 or 8 years in conferences at Geneva and Doha, and they actually belied the cocktail party chatter about how things would be copacetic if only Bush was out of office. "Emir so and so, don't you think that President Bush is destroying the US's credibility in the Arab and Muslim world?" "Certainly Madam such and such, Islam would totally abandon its thousand year ebb-and-flow intrusions into the West if the US had a 3 point electoral shift."

Morons.

References and related after the jump...

The State Department was quite adamant about Honduras reopening Radio Globo, which had been closed down by the government for broadcasting Zelaya's calls for mass chaos:

The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation... "This decision was made because (Zelaya) was calling for insurrection ... but I'm going to listen to the other powers of the state and we're going to make the most wise decision in the interests of Honduras," Micheletti said... In the wake of Micheletti's decree... the Canal 36 TV station and Radio Globo were reported closed.

But while Honduras has been reinstating most civil liberties, Radio Globo has remained closed despite US objections. Which is a shame because they really seem like solid folks:

The U.S. Ambassador in Honduras has condemned anti-Semitic remarks by a local radio news director who has been an outspoken opponent of the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya... commenting on the rumors alleging Israeli involvement in the crisis, Romero referred to the "famous Holocaust" and added that "I believe it should have been fair and valid to let Hitler finish his historic vision."... "I cannot help but note the irony that you and Romero came to visit me last week to seek support after your station was closed by the de facto authorities," [Amb] Llorens said in his letter.

I'm not sure closing the radio station was a good idea and - all things considerede - it should be reopened. But this is who you end up rubbing shoulders with when you make a point of intervening on the side of totalitarian thugs. Pro-Zelaya antisemitism starts at the very top:

Keep in mind that Gaza is inching toward the $1 billion mark in new State Department assistance. Because apparently Hamas is more legitimate than the duly elected and appointed legislative and judicial branches of Hondorus. Obviously:

The Obama administration on Thursday cut all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras over the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, making permanent a temporary suspension of U.S. aid imposed after he was deposed in June. The State Department made the announcement as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was meeting with Zelaya. Spokesman Ian Kelly did not say how much assistance would be cut but officials have said previously that more than $200 million is at stake. Kelly said it affected "a broad range of assistance to the government of Honduras."

"The Secretary of State has made the decision, consistent with U.S. legislation, recognizing the need for strong measures in light of the continued resistance to the adoption of the San Jose Accord by the de facto regime and continuing failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras," Kelly said in a statement. The San Jose accord, brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, aims to return Zelaya to power with limited authority until elections now set for November. But Zelaya's replacement, Roberto Micheletti, has refused to accept it.

It's too bad for Micheletti that he isn't an intransigent genocidal lunatic. If he blew up some schoolchildren or threatened to wipe out a state, he'd have State's academic and journalistic enablers producing mountains of pro-engagement papers. Instead he's got Foggy Bottom officials condemning his Presidency as a "thug regime" a few months after they reflexively sucked up to actual Iranian thugs who were killing people in the streets.

How soon before the Obama administration is issuing visas to Cuba but not to Honduras?

References:
* US cuts aid to Honduras in support of ex-leader [AP]
* Unreal... US Official Condemns Honduran "Thug Regime"-- Compares President Micheletti to Napoleon [Gateway Pundit]
* Awesome: State Publicly Reassures Iranian Diplomats They're Still Invited To July 4th Parties [MR]
* US Embassy in Honduras to stop issuing most visas [AP]

Previously:
* Liberal Activism In Academia And Beyond
* Prominent Jewish Democrats Double Down On Obama. Unpersuasively.
* Obama Flip-Flops: I'm Now Supporting Zelaya Again Because My Critics Are Hypocritical Or Something

Just so everyone's clear: for the purposes of pressuring Israel to give away territory, there is a timeless distinction between Palestinian land and Israeli land. But when it comes to letting random Israel-hating US citizens wander between terrorist havens and Israeli cities - well, it's all just land, ya know?

The United States said Wednesday it had complained to Israel about restrictions on the travel of US citizens of Palestinian origin, calling the measures "unacceptable." The State Department said that Israel has been issuing entry stamps for some travelers, mostly those of Arab ancestry, stating that they are only allowed in the Palestinian Authority and cannot transit through Israel.

"We have made it quite known to the Israeli government ... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable," Kelly told reporters. "We will continue to protest."... Israeli authorities recently started to stamp in visitors' passports whether they are heading to Israel or the Palestinian territories, potentially preventing them from traveling to both.

Interesting. Usually the US asks Israel not to stamp passports because intransigent Arab states bounce travelers with Israeli stamps, making it harder for US citizens to get into those countries. That's a policy State is presumably not "continuing to protest." Now they're asking Israel not to stamp passports because it makes it difficult for genuinely suspicious US citizens "of Palestinian origin" - and believe it or not, such people do exist - to move between Gaza and Israel at their leisure.

The policy isn't racist, the AFP's implicit smear by omission aside. It very emphatically extends to moonbat activists who want to burn Israeli flags with terrorists in the morning and chain themselves to a Jerusalem building at night. It's not exactly hard to understand why Israel wants to limit their movement.

There's an easy solution to this though. If the choice is all or nothing - Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza or no entrance at all - well, that almost solves itself doesn't it?

References:
* US complains to Israel on Palestinian-American entry rules [AFP]
* State Dept Importing 1,350 Palestinian Saddam Supporters From Iraq Into Southern California [MR]

Previously:
* Obama Alienates The Israeli Left: "He Has Spoken About Us But Not To Us"
* Obama's Top NSA And CIA Picks: Harsh On Israel, Sympathetic To Iran And Hezbollah
* State Dept. Banning Pro-Israel Obama Officials From Speaking Out

Temper Madam Secretary, temper:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's temper flared on Monday when a Congolese university student asked her for her husband's thinking on an international financial matter... Clinton was clearly displeased by the question at town hall forum in Kinshasa. "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she replied incredulously when the male student asked her what "Mr. Clinton" thought of World Bank concerns about a multi-billion-dollar Chinese loan offer to the Congo. "My husband is not secretary of state, I am," an obviously annoyed Clinton said sharply. "If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband."

I'd be testy too if every month brought a new article about how I had been successfully pushed aside by the Obama Administration. Though after getting institutionally marginalized by Obama's army of czars and personally humiliated by Obama's misogynist brat pack, I'm not sure what she expects.

Eh. If she didn't want to be treated poorly she shouldn't have aired Birth Of A Nation-style race baiting commercials during the election:

There had to be a murky racial subtext in [the 3am ad] somewhere; every attack on Obama contains one if you're just willing to look hard enough. I thought TPM would be the ones to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead it's Orlando Patterson, drinking in a critique of a black candidate that features sleeping non-black children and concluding, naturally enough, that it's quasi-Klan propaganda.

See?

References:
* Clinton: I'm secretary of state, not Bill [AP]
* The curious case of the steadily shrinking Hillary Clinton [Daily News]
* Stephanopoulos Doesn't Ask Hillary If Obama Has Marginalized Her [News Busters]
* Video: Campbell Brown rips Hillary for laughing off Obama speechwriter's photo [Hot Air]
* Harvard prof: You know what Hillary's "3 a.m." ad reminds me of? Birth of a Nation [Hot Air]

Previously:
* CNN Spends Evening Searching For Democrat Who Can Explain Why Anti-Palin Smears Don't Reek Of Sexism. Fails. (Plus: Guess When "Shrill" Used To Be Sexist)
* Mind-Blowing Hypocrisy: US Leads Int'l Attacks On Israel For Evicting Illegal Palestinian Squatters From East J'lem After Igniting Crisis Over Legal Jewish Residents
* Hillary Asks "Who Painted" Miraculous Lady of Guadalupe On John Diego's Cloak

Is there anything these idiots can't screw up?

This is what happens when you have bureaucrats enamored with outside cutting-edge "knowledge" that's way, way beyond their competence to evaluate. In foreign policy you get an obsessive focus on "always having to say you're sorry" government-to-people communication - as if that's what diplomacy is designed to do - that ends with comparing Jews to Nazis. In domestic policy you get this idiocy:

Backtracking from earlier claims that e-passports are "totally secure," the U.S. State Department is now urging travelers to keep their RFID-chip enabled passports in "radio-opaque sleeves" to protect owners from having their information skimmed by unauthorized readers within a 30-foot range. The State Department's warning comes with the caveat that "hackers won't find any practical use for data," because personal information is encrypted. But that encryption has already been cracked. So now the data and the accessibility of the chip have been compromised. Why are we using this technology, again? Implementation of this technology means more hassle, more concern about your data, and, frankly, less convenience. Great.

Well as long as they're sure hackers won't find any practical use for the data...

Although that's kind of curious. If the data isn't useful for identifying individuals then it doesn't seem like a particularly useful thing to have on the chip. And if it is useful for identifying individuals then it seems like there's at least some practical use for it.

Mind-blowing incompetence.

References:
* Public Diplomacy Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry [MR]
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians" [MR]
* What a shock: Your e-passport isn't secure after all [Upgrade Travel Better]

Previously:
* State Dept Importing 1,350 Palestinian Saddam Supporters From Iraq Into Southern California
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes
* State Department Spouts Utter Nonsense, Undermines Israeli Self-Defense

Hey, remember that time when public diplomacy advocates were lavished with attention - to say nothing of the institutional credibility of publication - to come up with student exchanges as a way to win global hearts and minds? And remember when conservatives said that this was a typically muddled project filled with so much State Department incompetence at so many levels that it was guaranteed to fail? Hmm:

They came from around the world hoping to spend a high school year immersed in the culture and joys of America. Instead, five young foreign exchange students found themselves caught in a nightmare of neglect, malnourishment and abandonment by those supposed to protect them.

Now those five -- natives of countries stretching from Norway to Tanzania to Colombia -- are back home telling friends of a different America than they expected. And their brief visit reverberates in America as a United States senator demands accountability and reform, a Pennsylvania district attorney seeks criminal charges and the U.S. State Department concedes it failed to protect kids coming to America.

"We at the Department of State recognize [because we] are responsible for this program we have to make sure we are aggressively overseeing this program and make sure children are well-suited," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

On the plus side, I'm sure that this will turn out to be merely a poor implementation of a fundamentally sound idea. The alternative - that these kinds of "small but powerful" initiatives are bureaucratically unworkable sketches scribbled down by academics and embraced by diplomats who need to justify their existence - is just so unnuanced (h/t: MR reader BDH).

References:
* Student Exchanges Build Relations Between Countries [America.gov]
* The Political Psychology of Student Exchanges
* Exchange students live American nightmare [CNN]

Previously:
* Samantha "We Should Invade Israel" Power Appointed To NSC
* Which Egyptian TV Station Should Get An Obama Post-Speech Interview?
* Aww... Clinton Appoints Super-Special Globetrotting "Representative To Muslim Communities"

The 150,000 Jews who were forced out of Iraq in 1948 - the Jewish community in Iraq having stretched back to almost 600 BC - remain uncompensated by any national or international body. But these Palestinian tools, who enthusiastically supported Hussein while he waged war against the West and supported genocidal terrorism, get resettled in sunny Southern California.

I wonder if the State Department will put them in Orange County. They'd fit right in:

The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians - once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society - will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall. It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US - and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003...

"Really for the first time, the United States is recognizing a Palestinian refugee population that could be admitted to the US as part of a resettlement program," says Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch... But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.

Palestinian refugees came to Iraq in successive waves over several decades, first in 1948, then in 1967, and in 1991.

You know why there was an uptick in Palestinian emigration to Iraq in 1991? Because they were so enthused about how Hussein launched Scuds at Israeli population centers - remember the videos of Palestinians dancing on rooftops as missiles flew overhead - that they simply had to be closer to him. And he, always ready to bolster his image as an anti-Jewish warmonger, was more than willing to accept them.

Which begs the question: has any other country in history ever imported specifically the most enthusiastic supporters of an enemy they just defeated? Or are we the first to claim that particular "moral obligation" gold medal?

References:
* Iraqi Support for and Encouragement of Palestinian Terrorism [Israeli MFA]
* Risking Israel's ire, US takes 1,350 Palestinian refugees [CSM]
* Terrrorists Hiding in Plain View at UC Irvine [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Outreach Results In "Multiple Collaborative Efforts" With Islamists (Plus: State To Revolutionize Arab And Muslim Relations By Giving More "Respect")
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

No one noticed anything amiss with a vehemently anti-American, reflexively pro-Castro ideologue at the State Department? For two and a half decades? The hell you say:

On June 4, 2009, Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, were arrested by the FBI and charged with spying for the government of Cuba... In 1981, he applied for a job at the Central Intelligence Agency and in 1982, he returned to working as a part-time contract instructor at the [State Department's] FSI, and became the chairman for Western European studies. In 1985, he applied for a full-time job at the FSI teaching Western European studies, and in 1999, Myers took a position at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), as the senior European analyst. Myers stayed in that position until his retirement in 2007...

[T]he Myers were scathing in their criticism of the United States during their meetings with the source. In addition to their criticism of U.S. government policy, they were also very critical of American people... The Myers also expressed their love for Cuba and for the ideals of the Cuban revolution... Kendall asked the source, "How is everybody at home?" referring to Cuba. Gwendolyn expressed her desire to use the couple's boat to "sail home," meaning travel to Cuba... Kendall told the source that Castro was "wonderful, just wonderful" and Gwendolyn added, "He's the most incredible statesman for a hundred years for goodness sake."...

Myers was a European affairs specialist. There is also a possibility that the Cubans sold or traded intelligence they gained from Myers pertaining to Europe to their Soviet (and later Russian) friends... While at INR... Myers not only had access to information collected by State Department employees in the field, but also was privy to all-source intelligence reporting from the rest of the intelligence community (CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, etc.)... Myers looked at more than 200 intelligence reports pertaining to Cuba... and most of the documents were classified either Secret or Top Secret...

In spite of Myers' strong anti-American political beliefs - which were reportedly expressed in his classes - none of the background investigations conducted on him by the State Department provided any indication of concern. Furthermore, he was cleared for access to Top Secret material in 1985 and Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI) in 1999 -- 20 years after he was recruited by the Cubans. Apparently the agents and investigators who conducted his background investigations did not dig deeply enough uncover the warning signs of his radical beliefs, or the people they interviewed knowingly withheld such information.

At some point the day to day mannerisms, gestures, and opinions of a Communist radical became indistinguishable from the rest of quotidian life at the State Department. Strange, that.

On a personal level, Myers's superiors and employees probably never picked up on his radicalism. Without putting too fine a point on it, genuine radicals give themselves away by sounding radical. There will be a phrase that doesn't sound quite right, something that points to the political circles in which someone travels. This is different than the conspiratorial fetish, where a conspiracy theorist latches on to a gotcha that "reveals the true plan." It's more about the realization that a person wouldn't have said that if he or she realized how it sounded, if they knew that no one outside their community talks like that. They just can't tell when a thing is a Thing. Cf. Obama's glib "Likudnik" smear.

For State Department employees, it's not just that their IR professors used to peddle pro-Castro agitprop in classrooms. It's that a cloud of liberal faux sophistication - "the embargo only exists because of Republican Cuban exiles," "Cuba's medical system is superior to America's," "Castro is outmaneuvering the US in Latin America" - crowds out other discussions. Those are the sorts of things that one says about Cuba. It's not necessarily that a young State intern doesn't also believe that Castro is kind of a bad guy. It's just that it never comes up in the grind of conversation. A suitably trained State Department patriot and a full blown Cuban spy can nod at each other for days without ever noticing much tension.

I don't know if this is standard operating procedure or not - it would be for the military, a half-decade of anti-Bush leaking aside - but it certainly has something of a whiff of stifling dissent. Via MR sister site Is Iran's Fist Still Clenched?

Dennis Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State's special adviser on Iran, says in a new book that the United States will not make progress toward peace in the Middle East with the Obama administration's new plan... Contrary to the position of the president and other advisers, Ross writes that efforts to advance dialogue with Iran should not be connected to the renewal of talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Other senior officials in the Obama administration told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his recent visit to Washington that Israeli gestures and the advancement of talks with the Palestinians will help the administration get Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. Because of Ross' position, his superiors at the State Department do not allow him to promote the book or be interviewed about it.

Unless I'm misreading that, it means that linkage is now the official position of the Obama administration. That's been predictable since the election, when the ostensibly pro-Israel Obama blamed Israel for the entire length and breadth of Middle East instability. But it's interesting to see it codified as official State Department policy.

It's also doesn't make much sense, except maybe as a way to put the US and Israel on a collision course. Even anti-Israel realists admit that Iran is going nuclear, at a minimum, because of: national pride ala the Pakistani Bomb, regional power projection, Sunni-Shiite tensions and the tramau of the Iran-Iraq War, and the cache that comes with being a member of the nuclear club. But at least the left is no longer blaming Iran's Manhattan Project on the US presence in Iran. I wonder why that meme got dropped so quickly.

It's also kind of neat how, any time Arab and Muslim nations want stall on something, it becomes Israel's fault. Convenient, that.

References:
* Dennis Ross vs. Obama: No link between Iran, Mideast peace [Ha'aretz]
* Clenched For Reasons That Have Nothing To Do With The Israeli-Arab Conflict [Is Iran's Fist Still Clenched?]
* New Palin Smear: She Supports Hamas (Plus: Obama's Anti-Israel FP Sensibility, Support From Hamas) [MR]
* 'US shouldn't link Iran, Palestinians' [JPost]
* Mathematical Proof That Negotiating With Iran Is Stupid. Not Wrong. Stupid. [MR]

Previously:
* US Security Assistance To Lebanon Already Being Turned Against Israel
* UNRWA: It's Israel's Fault That Our Schools Teach Kids To Be Terrorists
* Rice: Failure Of Peace Process Is Israel's Fault (Plus: The Two Dogmas Of Foreign Policy Faux Sophistication)

STRATFOR has a writeup explaining the myriad ways that our passport system is broken, overwhelmed, or both. And wouldn't you know it, State's institutional interest in speeding people into and out of the country has more than a little to do with it. Combine that with the looming enforcement of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative for land and sea entrances, and the combination is magic:

Historically, passport examiners have had their performance evaluations based on the number of passport applications they process rather than on the number of fraudulent applications they catch (which has long been a source of friction between the DSS and the Bureau of Consular Affairs). This emphasis on numerical quotas has been documented in U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that have noted that the quotas essentially force examiners to take shortcuts in their fraud-detection efforts. As a result, many genuine passports have been issued to people who did not have a legitimate right to them. The current overwhelming flood of passport applications as a result of WHTI, when combined with a batch of new examiners who are rated on numerical quotas, will further enhance this vulnerability. Unless a passport application has an obvious fraud indicator, it will likely slip through the cracks and a fraudulent applicant will receive a genuine U.S. passport.

The article is pretty long, but well worth it if you're interested in the security aspects of US screening policies. The CT Blog writers has been screaming from the rooftops about the dangerous loopholes in the US Visa Waiver program, which allow visitors from certain countries to enter at will. You'll be glad to know that not only are some of those loopholes still open, but that they've already been exploited by potential terrorists:

There have also been cases of jihadist groups using the passports of militants from visa waiver countries who have died in order to move other operatives into the United States. On Sept. 1, 1992, Ahmed Ajaj and Abdul Basit (also known as Ramzi Yousef) arrived at New York's Kennedy Airport. The two men had boarded a flight in Karachi, Pakistan, using photo-subbed passports that had been acquired from deceased jihadists. Ajaj used a Swedish passport in the name Khurram Khan and Basit used a British passport in the name Mohamed Azan.

At least no one wants to attack us. On account of how charming Obama is.

References:
* The Practical Implications of the WHTI [STRATFOR]
* FBI Director Vindicates Visa Waiver Criticisms By CT Blog Experts [CT Blog]

Previously:
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video]
* State Department Public Diplomacy Scores Again - Nasrallah Now Most Admired Leader In The Arab World
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Hamas Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

I missed this a few days ago. But this is just too stupid for words:

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers "on behalf of the American people," after asking who painted the famous image. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary's eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image's lack of decay... After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked "who painted it?" to which Msgr. Monroy responded "God!"

"Smart power" in all its sophisticated glory. But at least we got rid of the inexperienced, bumbling, and just plain dumb Republicans.

Hey, remember the time when Hillary was confirmed on a 94-2 Senate vote and the left laughed at Republicans for not opposing her more vociferously? A genuine barrel of mirth she's turning out to be, huh?

References:
* Hillary Clinton leaves flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks 'Who painted it?' [Catholic News Agency]
* Four Theories Why Obama Is Throwing Britain Under The Bus [MR]
* Special, special lady confirmed as Secretary of State [Hot Air]

Previously:
* Obama White House Going Back To Stone Age Public Diplomacy: "Spread The Truth About American Values" (Plus: Obama's "Ominous Evasiveness" About Cast Lead)
* State Dept Forgets To Condemn Palestinian Terrorist Attack - Another Diplomatic Masterstroke
* Obama's Top NSA And CIA Picks: Harsh On Israel, Sympathetic To Iran And Hezbollah

Begging the increasingly salient question: devious realist payback or total fucking amateur hour?

Officials in Jerusalem are quietly scratching their heads in wonderment as to why the White House did not release an official statement condemning yesterday's tractor terrorist rampage here, the third attack of its kind in recent months... The attack with a Tractor came less than 18 hours after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly protested as "unhelpful" the planned bulldozing of more than 80 Jerusalem Arab homes built illegally upon Jewish land in Jerusalem. Usually, following any terrorist attack in Israel, the White House like clockwork immediately releases an official statement condemning the attack. But this time, no statement was forthcoming from either the White House or Clinton's State Department. Speaking to WND, a White House spokesman would only confirm he was not aware of any statement regarding the attack, but he would not speculate as to why the terrorism wasn't condemned.

And the verdict is... amateur hour. When these tools decide to use terrorist attacks as Teaching Moments they do it by hamfistedly inserting "cycle of violence" into their statements. In this case it just never occurred to them that the State Department is in the business of condemning terrorist attacks. Which is weird since we've all been assured in the most effusive terms that the Obama White House is preeminent in diplomatic nuance:

President Obama traveled to the State Department yesterday afternoon for a visit that was as rich in symbolism as in substance, underscoring his pledge to give top priority to diplomacy as he outlined an activist policy in the Middle East... Obama and Vice President Biden stood to one side as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced new special emissaries [such as] Mitchell for the Middle East... Just hours earlier, about 1,000 cheering civil service and Foreign Service employees had packed the building's lobby to welcome her on her first day at work... The new secretary... buoyed a workforce that often felt disdained and relegated to the back seat behind the military over the past eight years. "People were just elated that the president came here and said all the right things about strengthening diplomacy," one official said. "It is my privilege to come here and to pay tribute to all of you, the talented men and women of the State Department," Obama said. "I've given you an early gift, Hillary Clinton"

Do you think maybe it was Mitchell's job to remind them and it just slipped his mind? Or maybe they were still busy handing out Fulbrights to international anti-Israel celebrities. Or maybe the condemnation got lost among all the apologies Hillary's been issuing. Or maybe they just missed the memo. Could be anything really.

"As rich in symbolism as in substance." Honestly. Who the hell's writing this tripe? (h/t: CB)

References and previously after the jump...

This nonsense started during the transition and extended through the inauguration, with Obama snubbing India in favor of Pakistan, Israel in favor of the Palestinians, and the Philippines in favor of Iran. Now the White House seems to be brainstorming new and better ways to snub Britain: the Churchill bust weirdness with the embassy, the insulting DVD gift to Brown, the "special partnership" slight from Gibbs, and the humiliating treatment that Brown got during his visit:

Commentators on both sides of the Atlantic have noticed that Gordon Brown's visit to the White House yesterday was not exactly the high-profile boost that the struggling prime minister was hoping for. In a break with protocol, Obama decided to skip the traditional side-by-side photo-op in front of the two nations' flags, didn't invite Brown to Camp David as both Clinton and Bush had done for Tony Blair, and kept their Oval Office press conference brief, to the point, and not all that cordial... The Guardian's Oliver Burkeman writes that the meeting "seemed to teeter on the brink of humiliation," for the prime minister noting that Obama had squeezed him in between a visit to the department of transportation and a meeting with representatives of the Boy Scouts.

(1) It's personal petulance - Obama's grandfather was tortured by Brits. Michelle Obama is still pissed off about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Come on. That's not how decisions get made.

(2) It's amateur hour - Under this category we have Clinton handing the Russian Foreign Minister a kitschy "reset" button - to symbolize renewed US-Russian ties - that actually spelled out "overcharge." Because apparently knowing Russian isn't a prerequisite for working in State's Russia section. Which isn't totally unfair since knowing how to pronounce the names of Europe's Foreign Ministers isn't a prerequisite for being the Secretary of State:

Would it be too much to describe the State's response to Ahmadinejad's "jump"...

Just testing the waters, checking to see how low The One will stoop to fulfill his campaign promise of getting to the negotiating table with Iran, where absolutely nothing will be resolved. Doubtless there'll be some support for this on the American left, too. If a groveling apology to a terrorist Holocaust denier who spent the last six years funneling weapons to Iraqis to kill Americans furthers the cause of "dialogue," why not suck it up?

... as a servile inquiry about how high he'd like to see them leap?

The Obama administration is preparing a letter to Iran intended to warm relations and pave the way for direct talks between Washington and Teheran, The Guardian reported Thursday. Work on the document reportedly began immediately following the November election, upon receipt of a letter of congratulations sent to the elected president by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... The letter would either be sent to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter. It is being considered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of a general review of Washington's policy on Iran.

But at least the Islamic Republic has been showing absolutely zero willingness to reconsider their nuke development. And at least the months and months of lukewarm rapprochement efforts won't box in Israel diplomatically, letting Iran build a bomb.

I wonder how much longer Stuart Levey is going to survive at Treasury - where even the NYT says he's critical to the sticks part of Obama's Iran strategy - if he keeps making clear that of course Iran and Al Qaeda cooperate.

References:
* Ahmadinejad to Obama: Apologize [Hot Air]
* 'US drafts conciliatory letter to Iran' [JPost]
* Iran rejects US call to halt nuke work [JPost]
* ANALYSIS / Obama plan to negotiate buys Iran time to complete nuclear program [Ha'aretz]
* Stuart Levy's War - The Sanctions That Could Coax Iran [NYT]
* The Iran-al-Qaeda Conundrum [Levitt and Jacobson]

Previously:
* Concise List Of Middle East Failures That Were Going To Happen Anyway But That Foreign Policy Experts Will Now Blame On Israel
* Iranian Mullahs Wringing Their Hands As IDF Dismantles Hamas's Army (Plus: NPR Wonders About "Real Connection" Between Iran And Hamas)
* Obama: Yup, I'm Going To Immediately Reach Out To Iran And Syria

Late last night I bookmarked links to voanews.com so I could post boilerplate about how Voice of America - State's flagship public diplomacy outlet - was using passive voice to describe misfired Hamas rocket attacks but active voice to describe potential Israeli counter-attacks (it's a thing). But I can't do that post now because - after Israel's attack on Hamas - the VOA has taken down the story and replaced it wholesale with propaganda about Israeli-inflicted casualties.

Back-story: among the 100+ rocket barrages that Hamas has launched in the last few days, one landed short and killed two Palestinian schoolgirls. Up until a few hours ago you could read about that via this VOA link, which led to an article entitled "Two Palestinian Girls Killed in Gaza Strip":

Even before it was taken down - more on that in a sec - the story was a model of soft anti-Israel journalism. The lengths to which the writers went to avoid identifying Hamas soldiers as culprits: impressive. Here's a version of the story that was captured by an unaffiliated (?) blog that seems to mirror VOA releases:

Two Palestinian girls have been killed in the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian gunmen continued firing rockets and mortars into Israel despite the threat of a military operation in the territory. Palestinian medical sources said the girls died when an explosive apparently fired Friday by gunmen mistakenly hit a house in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Hamas said it is investigating the cause of the blast, which wounded at least three other people. No group has claimed responsibility.

It's shocking that no group would claim responsibility for anonymous gunmen who apparently fired explosives which led to a situation such that two schoolgirls were killed. Who could it have been? We'll never know since - quite the opposite of following it up - the VOA replaced the original story - URL and all - with this thing:

I can understand changing a headline as a situation develops. But they scrubbed the whole story. The debate over the next few weeks is going to be about the degree to which Hamas aggression made an Israeli invasion imperative - and these tools scrubbed a pitch-perfect crystallization of Hamas recklessness. All down the memory hole. Here's a screencap of a site search on the old lede. The original headline still comes up in the links but behind all four links is the new, properly anti-Israel story. No mention of the Hamas atrocity at all:

You can click on the picture for a more readable screencap. The whole fiasco is a little bold even by the usual standards of US public diplomacy.

References:
* Obligatory Post About WaPo's "Israel Should Lift Its Gaza Blockade" Editorial [MR]
* Palestinians: Israeli Airstrikes Kill More than 170 in Gaza [VOA News]
* Two Palestinian Girls Killed in Gaza Strip [Free VOA]

Previously:
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians"
* State Department Outreach Results In "Multiple Collaborative Efforts" With Islamists (Plus: State To Revolutionize Arab And Muslim Relations By Giving More "Respect")
* US Public Diplomacy - Winning Arab Hearts And Minds By Promising To Sell Out Israel

An unraveling ceasefire in Gaza, an irreperably weak Fatah in the West Bank, and an Israeli public that's increasingly skeptical about the Arab world's willingness to accept a Jewish State - no seriously, incredible progress:

President George W. Bush, poised to finish his presidency without the Middle East peace deal he once said was in reach, declared Friday that Israelis and Palestinians have made great strides toward settling decades of conflict. "No question, this is a hard challenge," Bush said in the Oval Office alongside the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas. "But nevertheless, people must recognize that we have made a good deal of progress." Abbas concurred: "Some might say that all these efforts perhaps went in vain. I happen to disagree." In what was likely their last face-to-face meeting before Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, the two men sought to praise each other and emphasize what has been gained, not the opportunity lost. Their meeting came just days after the UN Security Council endorsed as irreversible the administration's peace process.

You have to admire the UN's unblinking shamelessness. The positions taken at the 2007 Annapolis peace process: irreversible. The post-mandate Jewish State recognized by the 1948 UN declaration: eh.

File this wherever you're filing Rice's statements from yesterday that "violence... is not going to help the Palestinian cause." You'd like that to be true. Except with the assists they've been getting from a spineless State Department, a sycophantic media, and a venomous international community - it sure seems to be helping their cause.

References:
* Hamas Celebrates Official End Of Ceasefire By Launching Rockets, Taking Pot Shots At Israeli Civilians [MR]
* Abbas: Israeli Political Instability Is Responsible For Utter Refusal Of Palestinians To Ever Accept Jewish State. Or Something. [MR]
* Poll: Most Israelis oppose leaving West Bank for Arab world's recognition [Ha'aretz]
* Bush: Mideast peace talks have yielded progress [Ha'aretz]
* Now get ready for Round 2 [JPost]
* Rice warns Hamas: Violence won't help Palestinian cause [JPost]

Previously:
* Top UN Official: Israel Is An Apartheid State, Must Be Dismantled (Plus: UN Adopts Resolution Outlawing All Criticism Of Islam)
* Obama's Perfect Choice For UN Ambassador
* The UN Says Stuff

Because threats of war are what you expect from the recipient of billions in international assistance:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to PA Arabs on Saturday saying Israel must retreat to its 1949 borders or face war. "The passage of years... will not force us to abandon or surrender a single inch," of Judea, Samaria or Jerusalem, Abbas said in the letter, which was published by PA media.

I'm not really sure why this counts as news. It's been his explicit stance for at least a year and he's never been shy about rebuffing talks whenever he wanted to sulk. He's gone out of his way to insult world leaders who so much as symbolically affirmed Israel's right to exist. He celebrates vicious child-murdering terrorists as heroes.

Perhaps if you spend your time willfully lying about Palestinian intentions - which is to say, if you're a diplomat or a major media outlet - you become invested in your own sophistication. And yet: Abbas said this in between laying the cornerstone for Ramallah's Arafat museum and telling Olmert not to respond to Hamas's bombardment of Israeli civilians. So "surprise" might be an inapt reaction.

Abbas's Fatah party also had the honor of claiming the 17 year old terrorist that the IDF just nabbed in Nablus. So really a banner weekend for them, ya know?

References and previously after the jump...

How many hundreds of millions has the US State Department given this guy in the last few months? I'm only asking because I suspect that it might not be having the moderating influence we were promised:

"The Palestinian leadership will continue to follow Yasser Arafat's path until a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is established," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday during a memorial service marking the fourth anniversary of the iconic Palestinian leader's death. During the memorial, held at Abbas' Mukataa compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian president said, "The path of the shahids - Arafat, George Habash (founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and (assassinated Hamas spiritual leader) Sheikh Ahmed Yassin - is the path that we cherish; it is aimed at upholding the Palestinians' nationalist and sovereign resolutions."

Fantastic. You might remember Yassin as "among the most brazen killers that the modern Middle East has produced." So definitely someone you want the kids to emulate.

In Gaza, on the other hand, Hamas banned pro-Arafat memorials. The guy was apparently too moderate. Follow his example and you'll end up merely trying to run Israeli cars off the road like they're doing in the West Bank. Better to spend one's time trying to slip massively armed terror cells into Israel.

Maybe this is something newly rehired Obama diplomat Robert Malley can ask about when he comes back for one of those Hamas talks he's so fond of.

References:
* Hamas Launching Dozens Of Rockets From Palestinian Neighborhoods, Attacking Israeli Troops (Plus: US Announces $14 Million In New Aid) [MR]
* Abbas at Arafat memorial: We'll continue to follow shahids' path [YNet]
* Europe: Yassin's Death Will Make Arabs Start To Hate Israel [MR]
* Hamas bans Arafat memorial in Gaza [YNet]
* Woman lightly wounded as Palestinians stone her car near Bethlehem [JPost]
* IDF thwarts terror cell's attempt to infiltrate Israel [YNet]
* Obama Adviser Who Met With Hamas Is Back [Jawa]
* Top Obama Adviser Carries Obama Foreign Policy To Logical Conclusion - Meets With Hamas And Then Resigns So It Won't Be A "Distraction" [MR]

Previously:
* Israel Foils Massive Impending Attack, Hamas Responds With Massive Missile Attack - It's A Cycle Of Violence!
* Gaza Palestinians Shake Shaky Ceasefire With Anti-Tank Missile, Rockets At Israeli Schools and Hospitals. Again.
* Bush: Actually, Not So Much With The Peace Process Thing This Year

Which is weird because (a) he's not a Muslim and (b) to the extent that he does have Islamic family roots it would cause Muslims to shun him as an apostate. But whatever:

"Arabs are very excited," said Mustafa, editor of Democracy Review, an Egyptian quarterly. "People are imagining that he is a Muslim like them and that he is going to bring a new America that is friendly." Obama's race, Islamic family roots and promise of change give him an opening to blunt militancy rooted in decades of white colonial rule and sharpened by the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq... Al-Qaeda has noted Obama's potential to make progress in repairing America's reputation among Muslims, damaged under President George W. Bush, said Rohan Gunaratna, director of a terrorism study center at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. "Obama will be able to change the perception among Muslims, even moderates, that the United States under President Bush was attacking not terrorism, but the Islamic world," he said. Militants were "discussing on jihadist Web sites that if Obama comes to power, it will risk a very significant defeat for them."

Any successful public diplomacy toward the Muslim world basically requires embracing their pathological anti-Semitism in a way that even a sophistication-enamored Democratic Congress has been unwilling to do. But still, I don't think these experts entirely wrong. If Iran is any example the Muslim world is pretty eager to be appeased. That's the same as "changing their perception," right?

And just because I have nowhere else to put these and this post is kind of about diplomacy: John "let's send Baker and Carter to coerce Israeli concessions" Kerry is currently a front runner for Secretary of State. Another front runner? Susan Rice, the woman who gave him that idea in 2004.

References:
* Obama Complains About Smears From Jewish Groups... And He's Not Totally Wrong (Plus: He's Still Kind Of Wrong) [MR]
* Was Barack Obama a Muslim? [Daniel Pipes]
* Obama Appeal in Muslim World May Tone Down Militants (Update2) [Bloomberg]
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians" [MR]
* Speaker Of Iranian Parliament: Of Course We Want Obama To Win [MR]
* That Settles That [MR]
* Who will Obama pick? The latest scuttlebutt [FP Passport]
* Barack Obama and Israel [American Thinker]

Previously:
* US Ambassador's Highly, Highly Dubious Declaration: Israel Is About To Give Away Jerusalem
* US Public Diplomacy - Winning Arab Hearts And Minds By Promising To Sell Out Israel
* State Dept. More Enthusiastic Than Ever About Coercing Israeli Concessions, Arming Palestinian Soldiers (Plus: Editor-in-Chief Of Int'l Arabic Daily: Gaza Is Another Afghanistan)

That $150M that I flagged yesterday? A drop of water in an ocean of terrorist funding:

A statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem says American aid to the Palestinians in 2008 now totals over $700 million and exceeds the amount the U.S. pledged at a donors conference in December 2007. We have already seen that 60% of the PA budget goes to Gaza, where Hamas benefits from the world's largess towards Palestinian Arabs. So this year the US has effectively given Hamas $420 million this year.

Enjoy that $420M figure while it lasts. It's also going to seem positively quaint after Hamas gets done taking over the PA via either unity government or parliamentary takeover. Abbas is already firing his security personnel - the very ones that the US is ostensibly funding - so as to placate Hamas:

Fatah officials on Wednesday criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to dismiss Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, commander of the PA's General Intelligence Service, noting that the timing was particularly "problematic."... Abbas offered to appoint Tirawi as his "adviser" on security affairs and to promote him to the status of minister... Abbas's decision to fire Tirawi is believed to be linked to the PA president's desire to patch up his differences with Hamas.

Firing him actually falls short of what Hamas is demanding: they want Fatah security chiefs executed for coordinating with Israel. State Dept security assistance: Money. Well. Spent.

And of course the Palestinian molotov bender continues apace. So State is dumping millions into Fatah security forces who are supposed to be securing peace - except soon those forces are going to be Hamas forces and the Palestinians don't really seem to want peace. Almost impossible to imagine why the peace process hasn't worked out yet.

Previously and references moved behind the jump...

There's a Fatah-Hamas unity government on the horizon. Failing that, a formal Hamas political takeover - and the war it portends - is a near certainty no later than January 2009. So naturally:

The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to give 150 million dollars to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's West Bank government, Agence France Presse reported. The funds are the first installment of 555 million dollars pledged by Western countries at a donors' conference in Paris late last year intended to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and underpin recently revived peace talks. The money will go directly to the government's budget to help fill a massive fiscal shortfall left in the wake of a seven-year uprising.

Because what you want to do is defray the cost of the Palestinian decision to turn down peace and embrace violence. That way they won't have an incentive to do it again. And in totally unrelated news, Palestinian soldiers in the Gaza Strip again threatened the shaky ceasefire by firing a rocket at Israeli schools and hospitals.

References:
* Abbas To Lead Fatah-Hamas Unity Govt Through 2010 (Plus: Zero Agreement On Any Peace Process Issue) [MR]
* Will Hamas-Israel truce come to an end in January? [Ha'aretz]
* Israel About To Free All Prisoners On Hamas Prisoner List? (Plus: No, This Isn't Why Hamas Is Going To Take Over The West Bank) [MR]
* PA receives $150 million from US [JPost]
* Gaza terrorists fire Kassam at Israel [JPost]

Previously:
* Fatah And Hamas Hugging, Making Up, Releasing Each Others' Prisoners
* Abbas Working Overtime To Reconcile With Hamas, Coordinate With Syria
* State Dept. More Enthusiastic Than Ever About Coercing Israeli Concessions, Arming Palestinian Soldiers (Plus: Editor-in-Chief Of Int'l Arabic Daily: Gaza Is Another Afghanistan)

Another day, another violent riot in the West Bank. Luckily the US State Department knows just how to fix things:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she still hopes to reach a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the next three months. Rice Tuesday told a U.S. conference on business investment in Palestinian areas that she "will leave no stone unturned" in an effort to resolve long-standing problems before U.S. President George Bush's term ends in January. Rice has visited the region multiple times - including eight trips this year to Israel and the Palestinian territories - to get a peace deal.

Well, they do say that the ninth time is the charm. So fingers crossed. Things are also progressing nicely on the security assistance front, where US pressure has pushed Israel into allowing 700 armed Palestinian soldiers to swarm over Hebron. As usual this is under the auspices of abject failure Keith Dayton, who has yet to meet a Palestinian soldier he didn't want to arm and train. The problem is that these brilliant plans for creating stability keep going awry - something that he naturally blames on Israel. In other words: he's a typical State Department foreign policy expert, albeit a little more vicious than most.

The awesome thing is that these soldiers will be under Hamas's political direction in about 3 months. Then they'll be able to use their US-supplied weapons and training to do for the West Bank what they've done for Gaza:

The transformation of the Gaza strip into another Afghanistan is a future whose first casualty will be the Palestinians... The Gaza strip has been transformed into a potential land mine due to the poverty, repressions and the proliferation of arms. moreover, Hamas has shown that it won't unleashing its fury against the Israelis but rather against Egypt and its borders, they have become a real danger to the Egyptians, which is what we have seen with the breach of the Gaza-Egypt border.

And you just know that somehow this is all going to end up being Israel's fault.

References:
* Troops shoot Palestinian fire-bomber [JPost]
* Rice Pledges Pursuit of Mideast Peace Until Term Ends [VOA]
* Israel to allow 700 additional armed PA troops into Hebron [Ha'aretz]
* Fatah Weapons Champion, Abject Failure Keith Dayton Said Nablus Was Fatah's "First Real Test" How's That Going? (Plus: Dozens Of Fatah Soldiers Building Rockets, Targeting Israelis) [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* Gaza: Following Afghanistan's Footsteps

Previously:
* State Department Ready To Pull Entirely Predictable Anti-Israel Bait And Switch On Har Dov
* Sunday Link Dump - The State Department Blows, Etc.
* State Dept: Sure Abbas Just Said That Palestinians Should Invade And Overrun Israel, But How About We Give Fatah Some More Weapons And Military Training? (Plus: Hamas Closer Than Ever To West Bank Takeover)

Last week: Abbas reaffirmed his long-standing and explicit position that any peace deal must include the so-called Palestinian Right Of Return, an advocacy he's been known to put a point on with reference to US security assistance. This week: another massive delivery of US security assistance:

About 500 members of a security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas crossed into Jordan on Thursday for U.S. funded training, the second such battalion to do so. Washington wants to train the backbone of a Palestinian gendarmerie that would underpin any future state. The battalion from Abbas's National Security Force will undergo training for four months in police tactics, riot control and human rights, officials said. An official at the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge, between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, said the battalion crossed without incident. It is the second battalion from the NSF to undergo U.S.-funded training, part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year. The other battalion returned to the West Bank in late May.

The perfection of State's timing really can't be overstated. In addition to Abbas's de facto intransigence, Abbas's term ends in January. Without new elections - which Hamas would win - the PA's leadership will default to the leadership of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Guess which side they're from. And if you think that these weapons will at least give Fatah an edge when Hamas gets around to rolling them - don't. While Fatah soldiers will be getting weapons from the US over the next few weeks, Hamas soldiers will smuggling theirs back into Gaza with Egypt's silent blessing. Again.

Of course, there's always the chance that Hamas and Fatah could peacefully close ranks and turn their weapons on Israel together. Always a pretty good chance in fact:

Fatah will fight alongside Hamas if and when the IDF launches a military operation in the Gaza Strip, a senior Fatah official in Gaza City said Thursday. "Fatah won't remain idle in the face of an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip," the official said. "We will definitely fight together with Hamas against the Israeli army. It's our duty to defend our people against the occupiers." The Fatah official said his faction would place political differences aside and form a joint front against Israel if the IDF enters the Gaza Strip. "The homeland is more important than all our differences," he said.

And I would've thought that State Department training would teach him not to say those things out loud.

References:
* Abbas to Haaretz: Peace deal would have to include right of return [Ha'aretz]
* Abbas: Of Course Palestinians Reserve The Right To Invade and Overrun Israel [MR]
* Abbas: Good Chance We'll Use Our US Security Assistance To Go Back To Killing Israelis [MR]
* Second Palestinian battalion begins U.S.-funded training [Reuters]
* New Poll: "Overwhelming Majority" Of Palestinians Support Murderous Rampages Against Israeli Schoolchildren, Rocket Attacks Against Civilians (Plus: It's Israel's Fault) [MR]
* End of Abbas's term may spell violence [JPost]
* Déjà Vu: Egypt to allow Gazans to go to Mecca [Elder]
* Egypt Opens Border Crossing, Allows Hamas To Smuggle In Money [MR]
* Exclusive: 'Fatah, Hamas may join ranks' [JPost]

Previously:
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong?
* Israeli Defense Official: Hamas Takeover Of West Bank Proceeding About How You'd Expect (Plus: Israel In Second Month Of Massive Humanitarian Concessions)
* Palestinians To Get 25 Cutting Edge, Helicopter-Busting APCs

So the IAEA confirms that Iran is building nuclear missiles - missiles which they've repeatedly boasted about launching at Israel:

The U.N. nuclear monitoring agency shared new photos and documents purporting to show that Iran tried to refit its main long-distance missile to carry a nuclear payload... Part of the report spoke of what appeared to be drawings and calculations by Iranian engineers on reconfiguring its Shahab-3 missile to be able to carry a nuclear payload...The presentation "showed board members for the first time photographs and documents of work undertaken in Iran on the redesigning of the Shahab-3 missile to carry what would appear to be a nuclear weapon," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA... the senior IAEA official doing the briefing "told us that information they have is very credible."

And the IAEA confirms that Iran has overcome the technological hurdles to large-scale enrichment - not exactly a shock since they put thousands more centrifuges online last month:

Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. In a six-page report, the agency charged the Iranians with continuing to stonewall about what some Western governments suspected was Iran’s past research on designing a nuclear weapon. The agency acknowledged that it had failed “to make any substantial progress” in its investigation.

And now there are credible reports that disappeared 6 nukes' worth of uranium. So obviously the natural response - proposed by the very best minds that our State Department has produced - is to talk to Iran about it:

Five former U.S. secretaries of state on Monday announced their support for talks with Iran, with all five saying the United States should not wait to launch diplomatic engagements with the Islamic Republic. The former chief diplomats, Madeleine K. Albright; James A. Baker, III; Warren Christopher; Henry A. Kissinger; and Colin L. Powell issued their support for talks during a roundtable discussion entitled "The Next President: A World of Challenges," held at Washington D.C.'s George Washington University.

It's really too bad that Brzezinski wasn't there. That would've been perfect.

References:
* IAEA info suggests Iran worked on nuclear missile [AP]
* Iran's Revolutionary Guards: Zionist Entity in range of our missiles [Ha'aretz]
* Nuclear Agency Says Iran Has Improved Enrichment [NYT]
* Iran says 4,000 atomic centrifuges working: report [Reuters]
* Iran renews nuclear weapons development [Telegraph]
* Former U.S. secretaries of state say they support talks with Iran [Ha'aretz]
* Obama's Foreign Policy Advisers Not Exactly Fans Of The Jewish State (Plus: Brzezinski Snubs Israel After Tete-A-Tete With Assad) [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Discovers Iran Supports Terrorism
* Reuters Publishes State Department Leak: US Attack On Iran Would Be All-Out War
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran

At least this means that that Syria will break off its cooperation with Hezbollah, since as foreign policy experts tell us Sunnis and Shiites never cooperate:

Iran is consolidating its grip on Hizbullah and has instituted a number of structural changes to the Lebanese group, under which Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah no longer enjoys exclusive command over its military wing, top Israeli defense officials have revealed. According to the officials, following the Second Lebanon War, Iran decided to step up its involvement in the Hizbullah decision-making process and has instituted a number of changes to the terror group's hierarchy, under which Nasrallah has to receive Iranian permission prior to certain operations. "There is real Iranian command now over Hizbullah," a top IDF officer said. "This doesn't mean that Nasrallah is a puppet, but it does mean that whenever he pops his head out of his bunker he sees an Iranian official standing over him."

This comes as Hezbollah is expanding its war against Jews into Venezuela and its war against Israel globally (although their campaign to make Venezuela judenrein is probably just anti-Zionism - so no worries). As for the war in the Middle East, the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese government wants you to know that they're never going to stop trying to conquer Israel:

While forces within Siniora's western-backed coalition demanded that military action to liberate occupied lands be carried out "under the aegis of the state," now the government guidelines state that Hezbollah has what is essentially an independent right to take action. "Lebanon, its army, its people and its resistance [Hezbollah] have the right to take action to liberate lands that have remained occupied at the Shaba Farms, the hills of Shuba village and the northern portion of the village of Ghajar, with all legitimate means possible, and to resist Israeli aggression."

Remember that time last year when the US gave Lebanon cutting-edge military tech? If only it had been easily foreseeable that the weapons would end up under Hezbollah control. Not that Hezbollah is particularly short on weapons - last April UN peacekeepers found a cache of illegal Hezbollah weapons and promptly ran away. A little afterwards Syria switched from covertly smuggling in weapons to just openly arming Hezbollah. Some of the State Department's other brilliant ideas for solving the Hezbollah crisis, after the jump.

Actual first thought about this charming little story: "I don't really have much to say about it, but I might as well post it since everyone is going to be in a tizzy." Then I saw that Anne and Elder got to it yesterday - so now I have even less to say about it. But for completion's sake:

Notorious Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar on Tuesday said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas requested a recent meeting between the two that has angered Israel. Kuntar said in a statement that the meeting last week in Beirut was in response to a direct request by Abbas. An aide to Abbas denied that, saying it was Kuntar requested the meet. The aide was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Kantar was convicted of killing three people in a particularly brutal attack in Israel in 1979.

Eh. These things just happen ya know? Sometimes Abbas wakes up and just wants to celebrate the most brutal and vicious Palestinian terrorists he can find. The last time around he was awarding the PA's highest medal to terrorists responsible for the Sbarro Massacre. Before that he was promising to turn US weapons on Israeli civilians. Which is not really a surprise since he's made it explicitly clear again and again that he believes that Palestinians should be allowed to invade and overrun Israel.

So yeah. He meets with child killers. Look on the bright side: at least he didn't give Kuntar a medal.

References:
* Samir Kuntar: I met with Abbas in Beirut at his request [Ha'aretz]
* Abu Mazen meets Kuntar [BtB]
* Moderate peace partner pays homage to child murderer [Elder]
* Abbas To Award PA's Highest Medal To Hamas Terrorist Responsible For Sbarro Massacre [MR]
* Abbas: Good Chance We'll Use Our US Security Assistance To Go Back To Killing Israelis [MR]
* PA Responds To $150M In New US Funding By Explicitly Rejecting Israel's Right To Exist. Again. [MR]
* Abbas: Of Course Palestinians Reserve The Right To Invade and Overrun Israel [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinian Terrorist Poisoning Plot Not So Kind To Expert Expertise Of Foreign Policy Experts Who Deny Sunni-Shiite Cooperation, Advocate Embrace Of Fatah
* Fatah Responds To $250 Million In Aid By Dropping Rockets On Israeli Schools And Hospitals. Again.
* US Knew That Arafat Ordered Murder Of US Diplomats, Worked With Fatah For Three Decades Anyway

Suprise [PDF]:

The State Department's efforts to reach out to the Muslim community have resulted in multiple collaborative efforts between the State Department and radical Islamist groups and individuals. Some of these groups and individuals have even been convicted, indicted, or designated unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases in the United States, many linked directly to the Muslim Brotherhood or share its fundamentalist ideology. Collaboration between the State Department and Islamists has occurred in a variety of ways including hosting and sponsoring Islamist speakers, meeting with Islamist advisors, attending Islamist events, and funding programs involving Islamist groups and individuals, particularly at U.S. embassies abroad.

Want to stump a State Department public diplomacy bureaucrat? Ask whether Al Hurra - State's Arab TV station and occasional anti-Semitic jihadist propaganda outlet - is supposed to be news, entertainment, or just cheap propaganda. Honestly. Don't even bother with the whole "you're an utter and abject failure because your viewing share is in low single digits." Just try to figure out what they think Al Hurra does.

They're in a touch position. You can't come out and say "well, in order to be convincing we have to speak the audience's language so that's why we broadcast Nasrallah's genocidal exhortations." It doesn't play well in front of Congress.

Aside from the whole "US tax dollars funding jihadist propaganda" thing, State's projects are also useless. The whole dejected "they'd love us if they only gave us a chance" nonsense is not just pathetic but demonstrably false. Saudis already understand the West's tolerance for gender and racial minorities - those are the first dozen exhibits in their "Western decadence" rants. But all those mid-level State Department kids coming out of State feeder schools like Fletcher and the Woodrow Wilson School need jobs. So diplomacy becomes the hammer and global crises become nails - "we should negotiate with Iran because this time it might work"; "we should bolster with the Palestinians because this time it might work"; "we should explain ourselves to the Arab world because then they'll stop hating us".

And of course bureacratic inertia doesn't just stop when it fails. Instead it gets ugly and vicious. When State's outreach backfires - as it inevitably does because outside of their fantasy world Iran is nuclearizing and the Palestinian public doesn't want peace - the choice becomes between blaming someone else or accepting that their oh-so-sophisticated understandings of the world, crafted in the interest of justifying a bloated bureaucracy, are wrong - well, it's Israel's fault. Or it's the anti-Iranian neocon warmonger's fault.

Or it's because we haven't been obsequious enough to the Arab world. Ergo State's new strategy for public diplomacy: revolutionize the US's relationship with the Arab and Muslim world by respecting their anti-Western biases more. Seriously.

References:
* Testimony To House Subcmte On Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade [Steve Emerson]
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians" [MR]
* State Department Public Diplomacy Scores Again - Nasrallah Now Most Admired Leader In The Arab World [MR]
* "Good News and Bad in US Public Diplomacy" [Rami Khouri]

Previously:
* Karen Hughes - Public Diplomacy Chief, Utter Failure - Finally Resigns [Video]
* State Department Public Diplomacy Scores Again - Nasrallah Now Most Admired Leader In The Arab World
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

A year ago Congress had to clean out Al Hurra's stables because their newsroom was having trouble distinguishing between "reporting" and "broadcasting hours and hours of unfiltered Hezbollah propaganda." The State Department's Arab TV station - modeled on the VOA because presumably the same historical values that appealed to Cold War Europe operate in the Middle East today - was also faulted for their fawning coverage of Iran's Holocaust Revisionism conference. Al Hurra director Larry Register had to resign before Congress would sign off on more Al Hurra funding. Luckily new director Brian Conniff has put a monitoring system in place:

American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month, a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and ProPublica reveals. This, despite the fact that Al Hurra management promised Congress nearly two years ago that they would take measures to prevent such mistakes, which had occurred repeatedly before. The joint investigation will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT and be detailed on ProPublica's Web site simultaneously. Al Hurra is headquartered in Springfield, Va.; it was created four years ago by the Bush Administration to counter what was seen as an anti-American bias at Arab satellite news channels like the Qatar-based Al Jazeera. Nearly half a billion dollars has been spent since its inception and its top executive, Brian Conniff, assures Scott Pelley things have improved editorially. "We now have a fully functioning assignment desk that views all packages and scripts... I have an independent monitoring system..."

But 60 Minutes and ProPublica monitored the broadcast last month and found a Palestinian guest named Hani El-Masri on its flagship show "Free Hour" calling Israel a "racist" state that is conducting its own "Holocaust" against Palestinians. His exact quote, unchallenged by the host or balanced by another panel member, was "[Israel] is the occupying and racist state that imposes the stifling and deadly blockade and perpetrates a holocaust against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza."... Soon afterward, irate members of Congress were assured that Ahmed Amin would be fired. ProPublica and 60 Minutes have learned that, 18 months later, he was still on the U.S. government payroll. He was fired only after 60 Minutes and ProPublica began inquiring. The news director of Al Hurra who made the decisions to cover both the conference and Hezbollah speech was forced to resign. In his first interview since this controversy, Larry Register defends his decisions, telling Pelley he was trying to make Al Hurra more credible and relevant to people in the Middle East, where, according to a public opinion pollster, it gets just two percent of the audience.

In fairness to Register, Conniff, and the rest of the Al Hurra staff, they really are in an impossible situation. State Department department public diplomacy operates under the principle that Islamist supporters of jihadism will like us more if they only understood us better. It's the left's obsession with framing carried over into government-to-people rather than party-to-people communication. Never considered: the possibility that the US's enemies might hate us not because they don't know about America but because they understand US values all too well.

So Register's spineless excuse for using US dollars for Hezbollah propaganda and Holocaust denial is at least half right: it's functionally impossible to build a credible Middle East media presence without wallowing in the same insane conspiracy theories that dominate the rest of Arab public discourse. What I'm a fuzzy on is why this is supposed to be an argument in favor of Al Hurra continuing to fund Al Hurra.

References:
* US Public Diplomacy TV News Chief Quits Over Al-Hurra's Striking Resemblance To Al-Jazeera [MR]
* This Is Why Public Diplomacy Will Fail - Islamists Take It Over And Use It For Propaganda [MR]
* U.S.-Funded Arab TV Channel Slams Israel [CBS News]

Previously:
* Public Diplomacy Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry
* Karen Hughes - Public Diplomacy Chief, Utter Failure - Finally Resigns [Video]
* MR Reacts to Bloggers' Conference Call With Israeli Ambassador Uri Lubrani - Public Diplomacy Probably Won't Work, and Counting On It Is Probably a Bad Idea

The magical thing about pro-Israel blogging is that its abjectly depressing content is totally unredeemed by even the slightest hint of new or interesting anti-Israel outrages. I take a blissful month away from blogging only to return to this disgusting decade-old proposal and this incredibly predictable screwjob:

Lebanese officials reported of a significant turnaround in the United State's position regarding the Shebaa Farms and said that the Bush administration is now in favor of Israel's withdrawal from the eight square mile disputed area in the Golan Heights in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 170... Sources in Lebanon were quoted by Al-Hayat as saying that Israel's possible withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms area, which was captured by Israel from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967, was one of the focal points during the recent meetings US President George W. Bush held with German, Italian, British and French leaders while touring Europe.

Incredibly. Predictable. Screwjob:

As part of the Lebanon-II withdrawal, the US promised that it would never pressure Israel to withdraw from Har Dov, the so-called Shebaa Farms region that Israel took from Syria in 1967, based on Hezbollah's absurd claims that it was Lebanese land. At the time we wrote that we'd need that post in the future because the international community routinely pulls this kind of moving the goalposts bait and switch on Israel... Here's Alberto Fernandez (Director of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department) - a guy whose job it is to win Arab hearts and minds - responding to Arab-Americans trying to get him to endorse Hezbollah's absurd position: "Oh come on, the 'Lebanese Resistance', if I may use that term sarcastically, didn't know the Shebaa Farms was occupied until the Syrians told them so. That is just ridiculous." First the UN walked over every inch of the Lebanese border and certified that Israel had fully withdrawn. Hezbollah simply ignored that decision.

The most basic land-for-peace fantasy is that Arabs murder Israelis because of territorial disputes. Once Israel meets Hezbollah's "legitimate claims" - Obama's lovely phrase - intransigent and genocidal Arab anti-Semitism is supposed to subside. Land-for-peace skeptics - on the other hand - have always claimed that Israel's Arab enemies will just pocket Israel concessions and use them as platforms for even more insane demands.

Israel gambles on some diplomatic agreement or assurance in the context of a land-for-peace swap. Its concessions are met with unblinking hysterical fantasizing and unremitting genocidal hatred. The diplomatic community inevitably insists that Israel give in to just one more insane claim on its territory. It's the same bait and switch over and over again.

References:
* Vicious Child Murderer Samir Kuntar To Be Traded Next Week? [MR]
* Report: US backs Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms [YNet]
* The UN Makes It Official: There Is Absolutely No Agreement That Won't Be Changed If Israel's Genocidal Enemies Refuse To Accept For Long Enough [MR]
* Oh, THOSE Legitimate Claims [Power Line]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]

Previously:
* Are They Really that Stupid?
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security I - UN Admits Hezbollah Is Rearming
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador Dore Gold On How Current Limited Negotiations Are A Slippery Slope To Losing Jerusalem

So the State Department spent four years pressuring Israel not to bomb Syria's nuclear reactor. And then when Israel did it anyway the Bush Administration covered up the true extent of Assad's nuclear plans for another half a year. So naturally State Department Middle East specialists - having almost presided over the nuclearization of another member of the Axis of Evil - are using their friends in the press to insist that there was never anything to worry about anyway:

The prospect of nuclear technology in the hands of another terrorism-sponsoring state is scary enough. Worse is the notion that Syria's reactor is no big deal. That's the interpretation being shopped in Washington by anonymous Administration officials, presumably at State, who have been quoted as saying the CIA has "little confidence" that the goal was to build a bomb. The no-big-deal thesis expounded by the President's men directly contradicts their boss. After briefing Congress behind closed doors, the White House put out a statement expressing "confidence" that "this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities." CIA Director Michael Hayden said yesterday an operational reactor could have produced enough plutonium to make one or two nuclear bombs.

We're kind of surprised State hasn't figured out a way to blame Israel for failures caused by State's own analytical and diplomatic failings. That's how their incompetent anti-Israel experts and generals usually do it.

References:
* Syria's Been Building Their Nuclear Reactor Since 2003 And The State Department Still Tried To Stop Israel From Taking It Out (Plus: Awesome IDF Bombing Raid Just Got Filled With Even More Awesome) [MR]
* Bush: Disclosing Syrian reactor details sends a message to Iran [JPost]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]

Previously:
* Syria To Launch Bio-Weapons Against Jewish State If The US Attacks Iran
* Syria To Launch Bio-Weapons Against Jewish State If The US Attacks Iran
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

It's not a ban on actual jihad being waged by actual jihadists. Because if they were doing that, that would actually be something. This is just a ban on labeling it the way that everyone else on the planet - from the victims to the terrorists - labels it. Because the best way to solve a problem is to go out of your way to obfuscate it:

Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official. The argument... [is] that by using the word jihad, we're validating the jihadist claim to be waging jihad. Of course, it's ridiculous to think that the U.S. State Department carries any validating authority within the Islamic world to determine what is Islam and what isn't... Also, the claim is that by using the word "jihad," we are insulting the peaceful Muslims who are waging the daily jihad of the struggle against sin, the struggle against the dirty dishes, etc. And that's great, if that's what any Muslim actually believes is the sum and substance of jihad, but it is an understanding of jihad that is at odds with the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

But at least it's not unsophisticated! Although it's still not as stupid as that Orwellian "anti-Islamic activity" stunt that the Brits pulled a few months ago. And as long we're banning words - any chance we can get the State Department to ban the word "espionage" because it reeks of anti-Semitic double-loyalty insinuations.

You're thinking no?

References:
* New State Department lexicon forbids use of the words "jihad" or "jihadist" [Spencer]
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Britain More Or Less Gives Up [MR]
* ANALYSIS: New espionage affair may be old story, but will greatly damage Israel [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* State Department Deliberately Circumvents Anti-Terrorism Laws, Funds Hamas
* State Department: How About We Screw Terrorism Victims, Protect Palestinian Terrorists In US Courts? (Plus: One Jerusalem Launches Campaign)
* Mere Rhetoric: State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

We'll confess to being a little torn about this story.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Nassan Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world, according to a poll released recently by the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland. Nasrallah seems to be gaining in popularity, with some 26 percent of respondents voicing support for him. Syrian President Bashar Assad also won an increase in popularity, according to the poll.

On one hand we want to use it to explain how the State Department's Lebanon II strategy - pulling the rug out from Israel's feet militarily and diplomaticly - ended with a new round of genocidal fantasizing in the Arab world. Except this time it's Nasrallah filling in for Nasser and Assad as the designated glorious genocider-in-chief.

But that might distract you from how the State Department's public diplomacy efforts - which are supposed to sway Arab hearts and minds away from ostensibly outdated concepts like "killing all the Jews would be pretty awesome" - quite literally broadcast Hezbollah propaganda:

During the March 21 House Foreign Operations Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Rep. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) pressed Ms. Rice on the wisdom of providing a platform to Islamic terrorists, citing Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's Dec. 7 speech, which Al-Hurra aired live. The broadcast speech "went on for 30 minutes," she responded, "followed by commentary, much of which was critical of Nasrallah."... The problem with American public diplomacy is that there's too much distrust in the Arab world. when we say that we're kind of well-meaning and that we'd like to live in peace with them, they simply don't believe us. So we suppose that Al-Hurra should be congratulated for finally finding fare that the Muslim world finds palatable. Minus the whole "vicious anti-Israel incitement" part. That part seems less optimism-inducing.

The mind boggling incompetence of Middle East diplomacy - a hodgepodge of career academics, washed out intel analysts, and lifetime bureaucrats who seemingly alternate between broadcasting Hezbollah propaganda in the Middle East and passing it off as "expert opinion" in the US - is sometimes genuinely impressive.

References:
* Survey: Nasrallah is the most admired leader in the Arab world [Ha'aretz]
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Confirmed: Rice Went Out Of Her Way To Screw Israel On Lebanon II [MR]
* Obligatory Post About Iran's "Hezbollah Radiation Will Destroy Israel" Threat (Plus: Mugniyah Assassination Dramatically Demonstrates Absurdity Of Liberal Foreign Policy Sophistication) [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

The NIE report on Iran was hopelessly politicized. It was based on idiotic guesswork. It was part of a broader and sometimes illegal program - conducted by State Department washouts and anti-Bush military officials - to head off any action against Iran:

About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of "national security." But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program. Risen included this information in his book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration," which was published in 2006. In the book, he discusses a number of ideas which he says were thought up jointly by CIA and Mossad operatives to sabotage Iran's nuclear capabilities.

A much, much broader program:

President Bush is set to apply new pressure to Israel. He's afraid of looking like a lame duck so he's showing up to "take action and achieve results." And what better way to achieve results than by funnelling millions of dollars into a incipient Palestinian army via abject failure and US Security Coordinator Keith Dayton:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked Congress to approve an increase of $25 million to create a new battalion that would be trained in Jordan. U.S. General Keith Dayton will be in the charge of the program. Training of the PA's first battalion, which consists of more than 700 members, commenced a month and a half ago... Dayton's objective is to form five new battalions for the PA under Abbas' control in the West Bank. Battalion members have undergone security screening to prevent Hamas agents from infiltrating their ranks... the Washington Post reported a serious shortage in the first battalion's equipment. In addition, it mentioned obstacles imposed by Israel on supplying bulletproof vests and vehicles.

Do you think that this will be more like the time that Hamas took US weapons and openly bragged about it or like that other time that the Fatah leaders promised to fight on Hamas's side anyway? Who knows? Could go either way. Although Abbas did just get done declaring that new US security assistance will be turned against Israel - which PA soldiers have been doing for months anyway. So that's probably kind of a hint.

Either way it'll definitely be like the time that Dayton said that Nablus was his and Fatah's first real test - which they then flunked. Which was right after everyone said that Gaza was his and Fatah's first real test - which they then flunked.

And not that it matters, but did the new members also undergo security screening to prevent Al Qaeda agents from infiltrating their ranks? Because that's historically been kind of a thing.

References:
* Bush to push Israel, PA for progress before his May visit [Ha'aretz]
* U.S. gov't asks Congress to okay plan to boost funds for PA police [Ha'aretz]
* Hamas Using US Weapons To Kill Israelis [MR]
* Fatah: We're Going To Use Our New US And Russian-Supplied Weapons To Fight With Hamas Against Israel (Plus: Hamas Upgrades, Stockpiles Their Qassams) [MR]
* Abbas: Good Chance We'll Use Our US Security Assistance To Go Back To Killing Israelis [MR]
* PA Police Officers Rolling In Millions Of New US Aid, Murdering Israeli Civilians [MR]
* Fatah Weapons Champion, Abject Failure Keith Dayton Said Nablus Was Fatah's "First Real Test" How's That Going? (Plus: Dozens Of Fatah Soldiers Building Rockets, Targeting Israelis) [MR]
* Abject Failure Keith Dayton Moves Goalposts To Justify US Security Assistance, Lets Abbas Try Again [MR]
* Dozens Of Fatah Police Officers Defect To AQ (Plus: Israeli "Goodwill Gesture" - 300 Palestinian Policemen To Deploy Around Nablus) [MR]

Previously:
* US Unveils $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Seized By Hamas
* Hamas: When We Said That We're Going To Overrun The West Bank As Soon As Abbas Gets Land And Weapons, We Were Just Joking
* Palestinians To Get 25 Cutting Edge, Helicopter-Busting APCs

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are calling on their citizens to leave "as soon as possible." The US just moved three warships into the region. And Hezbollah and Syria are willing to let the entire country burn:

A U.S. deployment of warships off Lebanon sharpened tensions in the crisis-ridden nation as the Shiite militant group Hezbollah said it won't be intimidated, and the U.S.-backed government that the ships may be intended to bolster distanced itself from the move... "We are facing an American threat against Lebanon," Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said on local television. "It is clear this threat and intimidation will not affect us," he said. The government and opposition have been locked in a 15-month power struggle, with Hezbollah and its allies trying to force out Siniora's administration. The deadlock has prevented the country from electing a president since November, leaving the post empty in a dangerous power vacuum. Though both sides have tried to prevent violence, many fear the political conflict could turn into clashes between the two camps.

Hey, remember that time when the IDF was ready to dismantle Hezbollah once and for all? But then Olmert got held back by the State Department right before Rice went out of her way to screw Israel diplomatically? That's working out well.

References:
* Lebanese TV: Saudi, Kuwait urge nationals to leave Lebanon [Ha'aretz]
* US sends 3 warships to Mediterranean as tensions mount [JPost]
* Hezbollah says not intimidated by U.S. warship deployment [Ha'aretz]
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Confirmed: Rice Went Out Of Her Way To Screw Israel On Lebanon II [MR]

Previously:
* Kids Being Brainwashed To Hate Jews In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Egypt, Iran, Etc Etc [Videos]
* Pentagon Gets Brilliant Idea: Let's Give Lebanon Cutting-Edge Military Tech, Training
* Lebanon Government Heading Off Civil War By Siding With Hezbollah

Technically, he said that it's even worse:

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday denounced a deadly Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip that has killed at least 32 people as "more than a holocaust... It's very regrettable that what is happening is more than a holocaust. We tell the world to see with its own eyes and judge for itself what is happening and who is carrying out international terrorism," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah. He appeared to be referring to remarks made by Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, who used the Hebrew word "shoah" -- generally used only for the Nazi Holocaust -- in remarks to army radio on Friday.

Vilnai was using the word "shoah" in its more generic Hebrew meaning of "catastrophe". Foreign policy sophisticates who endlessly parse the statements of real genocidal maniacs and find that "wiping out Israel" doesn't really mean "wiping out Israel" - they're apparently unable to speak modern Hebrew. But hey - any chance to brand Jews as Nazis and get it carried by international media, right? And of course - very famously - the Jews of 1930s Germany were given dozens of chances to hammer out a ceasefire and they imperiously turned them all down. When given billions in aid and weapons from the international community they declined to protest peacefully and instead threatened to turn their weapons on German civilians. They spent years raining down thousands of missiles on German schools and hospitals. It was just. like. that.

Also, the murder of German Jews happened while they were soldiers in an organized army engaging the German army on the battlefield. Then the NYT splashed gigantic pictures of grieving Jewish mothers all over their newspapers and the Germans immediately came under intense international scrutiny. That happened too.

Waging war on the Hamas army that's been committing acts of war for months - just like the Holocaust. Obviously.

References:
* Abbas slams Israel's Gaza 'holocaust' [AFP]
* Ahmadinejad: Israel "Cannot Continue Its Life" [MR]
* Hamas Responds To Ceasefire Proposal By Lobbing Missiles On Sderot Schoolchildren [MR]
* Abbas: Good Chance We'll Use Our US Security Assistance To Go Back To Killing Israelis [MR]
* Massive And Peaceful Gaza Protest Neither Massive Nor Peaceful [MR]
* LA Times: Qassam That Critically Wounded 10 Year Old Boy Was Part Of Palestinian "Parallel Protests" [MR]
* Israeli-Arab Traitor Who Sat In Parliament Complains About Apartheid [MR]
* 46 Killed in Israeli Strikes on North Gaza [NYT]

Previously:
* Hamas Smuggles Katyushas Into Gaza, Fires Them At Israeli Schools And Hospitals (Plus: Eight Mortars Fired At Israeli Civilians, One Scores Direct Hit)
* Hamas Blocks Israeli Food Shipments, Intentionally Starves Gaza Civilians To Create A Humanitarian Disaster - Again!
* Palestinians Shut Down Generator To Create Gaza Humanitarian Crisis, UN Blames Israel

Perfect:

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday. Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence. Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists... He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family... Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as if a gun had been held to the head" of the government.

We're not saying that this is the kind of thing that's been holding up the investigation into how Saudi money is corrupting future diplomats at Georgetown... No really, it's not. We just needed a way to work that investigation into a post, and "the corrupting influence of Saudi money" is the least strained hook we could come up with. It's not bribery or blackmail as much as it's the usual anti-American intellectual alliance between State Department sophisticates and Our Friends the Saudis. Unseemly, but probably not illegal.

Almost difficult to imagine how US foreign policy elites came up with the brilliant idea of giving the Saudis 20 billion in cutting edge weapons.

References:
* BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince [Guardian]
* Wolf to Georgetown: Detail Use of Saudi Millions [Steve Emerson]
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]
* Bush To Give $20 Billion In Cutting Edge Weapons To Our Friends The Saudis [MR]

Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Britain More Or Less Gives Up
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - One In Ten "Asians" Support Honor Killings In Britain, "Political Correctness" Prevents Police From Stopping Them [Audio]
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Artists Terrified Of Muslim Lunatics, British Cops Apologizing For Muslim Lunatics

Why not? They're already deliberately circumventing Congressional anti-terror laws so they can fund Hamas. A healthy amount of their legal security assistance goes either to Fatah terrorists or to Hamas terrorists. The rest of their Middle East presence is divided between funding anti-Semitic, anti-American, and anti-Western media and funding no-Jews-allowed business programs. They go out of their way to diplomatically screw Israel in US-led talks and international forums. Just think of this as protecting their investment:

The State Department is considering supporting the Palestinian Authority in its quest to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments won by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel, according to Palestinian officials and defense lawyers involved in the cases. U.S. officials insist that no decision has been made regarding the complex litigation, which could force the Bush administration to choose between supporting compensation for victims of terrorism and bolstering the Palestinian government as the United States presses for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Testimony in Israeli courts has connected senior Palestinian leaders -- such as the late Yasser Arafat -- to specific terrorist attacks involved in the lawsuits. But Palestinian officials have argued that it makes no sense for the United States to be providing millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority while U.S. courts are threatening to bankrupt it.

This is so mindbogglingly craven that it's gotten the attention of One Jerusalem. They've obviously got bigger fish to fry right now, so their attention to this is a pretty good sign of how bad things have gotten at Foggy Bottom.

References:
* State Department Deliberately Circumvents Anti-Terrorism Laws, Funds Hamas [MR]
* Israel Captures Terrorist Who Was Leading Abbas's Anti-Terrorism Forces [MR]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault) [MR]
* Karen Hughes - Public Diplomacy Chief, Utter Failure - Finally Resigns [Video] [MR]
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes [MR]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* Confirmed: Rice Went Out Of Her Way To Screw Israel On Lebanon II [MR]
* Palestinians Ask U.S. To Intervene in Suits Over Terrorist Attacks [WaPo]
* State Department Outrage [One Jerusalem]
* Palestinians say Jerusalem still high on agenda [Reuters]

Previously:
* US State Department Shines Again
* It's Official: State Department Positions More Anti-Israel Than What Palestinians Demand
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans

Remember that time when the State Department placed inordinate pressure on Israel to hand over security at the Gaza-Egypt crossing to the EU? And then - once Israel made that de facto irreversible concession and withdrew from the border - the EU backed out of that agreement? Wouldn't it be totally weird if the State Department now completed their standard anti-Israel bait and switch and reacted to Hamas's temper tantrum by demanding that the Palestinians control the border? Totally weird:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday the United States wants a return to order along the border between Egypt and Hamas-held Gaza, and said the Palestinian Authority should have a role in policing the border. "We understand the complexity of that situation and want very much to see a resolution that would return order to that border," Rice said at the State Department.

With due respect to the Secretary, if there's one thing they have absolutely zero understanding of is the Israeli-Palestinian situation. But on the plus side, great news: the EU is thinking about maybe considering returning to their monitoring posts. So there's a very tiny possibility that the situation will revert to a near-total anti-Israel screwjob, rather than its current status as a mindbogglingly-surreal anti-Israel screwjob.

References:
* One Jerusalem Conference Call: Ambassador Dore Gold On How Current Limited Negotiations Are A Slippery Slope To Losing Jerusalem [MR]
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security [MR]
* Annapolis As A Rosetta Stone For How Anti-Israel Bait And Switch Diplomacy Works [MR]
* Rice: PA should have Gaza border security role [JPost]
* 'EU considering returning its inspectors to Rafah crossing' [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

The President, the Secretary of State, and the representatives of major media outlets had the best time evuh in the Middle East:

Who knew that President Bush loves "bling-bling," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finds strawberry juice just dandy, and some White House journalists like to munch on goat brains? Oh yeah, and did you know there's some good-natured wagering among the press corps -- as well as some of the president's staff -- about whether Bush will be able to stay awake into the wee hours in a meeting with the night-owlish Saudi King Abdullah? These are just a few of the lighter insights gleaned during Bush's eight-day trip to the Mideast... But like any of Bush's other trips, there's plenty of levity that makes it a little easier to deal with sleep deprivation, jet lag and the far distance from home... Upon his arrival Sunday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Bush was presented with a gigantic bit of jewelry -- the kind of piece known by the slang term "bling" in the United States... Then there's Rice's beloved strawberry juice... "It's my favorite thing, I learned on my first trip here," Rice told reporters... For the media, it's fun to sample the local fare, whether it's strawberry juice or the hummus that's been ubiquitous on every stop of this tour... By now, the room was full of laughter.

Or you can read the AP writeup on the trip, which describes Bush as "well-fed" and "upbeat."

This is hardly fair. The Israelis could have totally have shown Bush and his media friends a great time - Israel's a fantastic place, with lots of laughter and parties and fun. Except the Israelis were probably too busy trying to protect their citizens from the Palestinian peace partners who the President is shoving down their throats and major media outlets are constantly exonerating. But at least the Saudis are reciprocating Bush's friendship.

References:
* Traveling with Bush: Bling, strawberry juice and goat brains? [CNN]
* Mubarak backs U.S. on Mideast pact [AP]
* Bush: Oh Hell Yes It's Peace Yet! [MR]
* CNN: Poor Hamas Victims Being Mourned Right This Moment By Long-Suffering Palestinians [MR]
* Saudis Respond To Billions In US Arms By Rejecting Israel, Embracing Iran [MR]

Previously:
* Saudis "Shocked" That Anyone Would Think They Fund Radical Mosques
* Saudi Arabia Identifies True Cause of US-Saudi Tension - Jews
* Saudi Arabia At Annapolis: Israel Has No Right To Exist (Plus: By A Strange Coincidence, Their Conditions For A Peace Deal Would Require Destruction Of Israel)

You know how Rice broadsided Israel yesterday by linking East Jerusalem settlements to West Bank settlements to the peace process? Turns out, even the Palestinians had delinked that position from the peace process:

At a previous meeting of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem on Dec. 27, the Palestinians agreed to stop focusing negotiations on their demand that Israel halt plans to build hundreds of apartments in east Jerusalem. But while negotiations are no longer being stalled by the controversy, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said settlements would be brought up in the Abbas-Olmert talks on Tuesday. Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would raise security issues, and urge the Palestinian Authority to be more effective.

This visit is going to be awesome. We can't wait to see what else the lifelong Arabists at Foggy Bottom can come up with. Maybe Arab autonomy over northern Israel? Why not? We're sure there's at least one anti-Israel "expert" in Michigan or New York or DC who thinks it's "the key to peace". We're sure they've been invited to at least one State Department sinecure where they all got together around a conference table and read "academic" position papers that conveniently conclude things that they all already believe. So let's throw that at the wall too, just to see if it sticks. Because it's sophisticated.

References:
* Rice: East Jerusalem Is Palestinian [MR]
* Olmert, Abbas begin J'lem meeting [JPost]

Previously:
* Condi: Palestinians Are Like Oppressed Blacks In The Jim Crow South (Plus: Hamas: "No Room For Jews" In Israel)
* Saudi Arabia At Annapolis: Israel Has No Right To Exist (Plus: By A Strange Coincidence, Their Conditions For A Peace Deal Would Require Destruction Of Israel)
* Obligatory Post About The NIE Report - Anti-War Partisans Switch From Sophisticatedly Undermining War Effort To Being The Bestest And Most Objective Analysts Ever. Except Not.

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Do you think they'll be like the UNIFIL force in Lebanon that collaborates with Hezbollah or the EU force in Gaza that allows Hamas free reign? Because those distinctions matter. Fuck:

The US is preparing a plan to station third party troops in the West Bank to secure the area after an Israeli withdrawal and before the Palestinian Authority can take over full security control, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Retired Marine Gen. James Jones accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaks at the State Department in Washington. The issue of how to deal with the period between when Israel leaves large swaths of the West Bank and the PA is able to take over control is likely to be discussed during talks President George W. Bush will hold in Jerusalem and in the PA on Wednesday and Thursday. US Special Envoy for Middle East Security James Jones has been assigned the task of preparing a plan on this issue within six moths.

We've actually got a post about James Jones that we have to finish up and push live, but in the meantime: IDF officials have been screaming for months that the Rice sent Jones to Israel just to screw them. So it's a shock that this is the policy he's come up with.

This Bush trip is going to work out great. We couldn't be more ecstatic.

References:
* Take Away Hezbollah's Collaborators, Human Shields, And Useful Idiots. Disband UNIFIL Now. [MR]
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security [MR]
* US considers interim international force in West Bank [JPost]
* Officials: Jones will press Israel to take risks [JPost]

Previously:
* State Department Deliberately Circumvents Anti-Terrorism Laws, Funds Hamas
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)

That strategy of leashing the IDF during Lebanon II to protect the Siniora regime is really working out great:

Parliament on Friday again failed to meet on electing a new president, as Lebanon's factions deadlocked over a tangle of issues, including an amendment to the constitution and the shape of a future government... But installing Gen. Michel Suleiman as president requires an amendment to the constitution, which currently bars a sitting army commander from holding the post. The feuding factions cannot agree on how to change the constitution. In a perhaps even tougher obstacle, Christian opposition leader and presidential hopeful Michel Aoun, is demanding a "political understanding" on a future Cabinet to replace that of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora before he will allow a vote on Suleiman. The opposition demands 45 percent of the seats in the next Cabinet and a "compromise prime minister" to head the government, said Ibrahim Kenaan, a member of Aoun's 23-member mainly Christian bloc. Government supporters were refusing to discuss the demands, he said Thursday.

Aoun is the Christian fig leaf of Hezbollah, willing to tear his country apart in pathetic attempts to garner the tiniest extra bit of power. His hand was strengthened last August when elections meant to bolster the oh-so-moderate Siniora somehow went awry and ended up bolstering Iranian proxies. Weird how that keeps happening in regions of the world where foreign policy sophisticates insist there are a ton of moderates.

Incidentally, wouldn't the State Department look really silly if they decided to give Lebanon cutting edge military technology and training just as the government fell to Iranian proxies? That would be both totally unforeseeable and totally unprecedented, huh?

References:
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Lebanon Presidential Vote Postponed [TIME]
* Hizballah's Christian Soldiers? [TIME]
* List of Things That Would Cause Us to Have More Sympathy for Lebanon's Prime Minister [MR]
* Pentagon Gets Brilliant Idea: Let's Give Lebanon Cutting-Edge Military Tech, Training [MR]
* Hezbollah Recruiting Thousands Of New Soldiers Thanks To US Diplomatic Failures, Lebanese Electoral Crisis (Plus: State Department Wants To Repeat Same Plan In West Bank And Wants Your Feedback) [MR]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault) [MR]

Previously:
* Surprisingly, Hezbollah Failing To Play Constructive Role In Lebanese Politics
* Our Favorite Part of this AP Story is the Phrase "Hezbollah's representative in Iran"
* Lebanon Threatening To Go To War With Israel Over Israeli Border Violation That Didn't Happen

Even assuming that the analysis itself was solid - which it wasn't - how does a reasonable human being admit that Iran has a fully-constituted weapons-level nuclear program and then decide that they're not a threat? When the report came out, Cliff May got an email about how the conclusions were engineered by two State Department washouts who had managed to grab control of the report. Yup:

Critics of the NIE have seized on the fact that career government officials who had battled with conservatives earlier in the administration on policy issues have now migrated to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which coordinated the writing of the estimate. "The problem is not the nature of the intelligence, it's the nature of the presentation. This NIE was presented with a clear intention to deceive and to redirect foreign policy," wrote Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, in an e-mail. "I have no doubt that these people believe they are protecting the nation from the President, but our constitution doesn't contemplate the non-proliferation center at the ODNI governing U.S. national security policy."

Sure they've endangered the entire planet by handcuffing the Commander in Chief in an ongoing proxy war against a genocidal regime that has repeatedly declared its intention to use nuclear weapons against a US ally. But at least they landed a sucker punch against conservatives! Career government officials indeed.

References:
* Obligatory Followup To Obligatory Post About The NIE Report - The NIE Unbelievably Punted On The Single Most Important Iranian Nuke Question (Plus: Israel Looking To React Now That Bush Is Handcuffed And Iranian Hardliners Are Crowing About Victory) [MR]
* Obligatory Post About The NIE Report - Anti-War Partisans Switch From Sophisticatedly Undermining War Effort To Being The Bestest And Most Objective Analysts Ever. Except Not. [MR]
* Review of Iran Intelligence to Be Sought [WaPo]

Previously:
* Syria's Been Building Their Nuclear Reactor Since 2003 And The State Department Still Tried To Stop Israel From Taking It Out (Plus: Awesome IDF Bombing Raid Just Got Filled With Even More Awesome)
* US State Department Has Been Funding Hamas Terrorists For Years. No Kidding.
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

What a bunch of tools:

Bolton, whose contempt for the United Nations is only matched by his exasperation with the State Department, recounts the position Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer adopted in 2006 toward the "final and binding" ruling an international commission had reached over the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, the cause of a war that claimed some 90,000 lives. "For reasons I never understood," writes Bolton, "Frazer reversed course, and asked in early February to reopen the 2002 [Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission] decision, which she had concluded was wrong, and award a major piece of disputed territory to Ethiopia. I was at a loss how to explain that to the Security Council, so I didn't."...

Bolton's words confirm what those who follow U.S. policy in Africa sensed but could never prove: While presenting itself as a neutral player in a bitter contest between two African regimes, Washington has in fact played the old Cold War game, favoring realpolitik over international law - with disastrous results.

The article goes on to describe how the State Department allowed Ethiopia to reopen what all sides had agreed was a closed border dispute in order to bolster the Ethiopian regime in the short term. That's twice. One more time and it's a pattern!

Stories like this hint at the possibility that the State Department's actions towards Israel are less the result of anything like anti-Semitism and far more a function of incompetence borne out of narcissistic and self-important delusions of sophistication. It's not that there's no unseemly antipathy towards Israel among certain US diplomats. It's just hard to untangle that antipathy from misguided stupidity.

These are obviously the people who should be in charge of fixing the Middle East. Because they're so good at their jobs.

References:
* America's Latest African Blunder [Slate]
* Are They Really that Stupid? [MR]
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]

Previously:
* Some Things You Didn't Know About Hezbollah and Syria (Hint: Syria Has Lebanese Prisoners, Hezbollah Openly Committed To Destroying Israel)
* In Just Seven Short Paragraphs, Jimmy Carter Tells 2 Lies, Makes 2 Incoherent Arguments, Takes an Anti-Israel Stance that the State Department Mocks, and Just Generally Annoys the Hell Out of Us
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

In fairness to the State Department and the Bush Administration, this is a total surprise, right?

Hezbollah is exploiting the tense political deadlock in Beirut to recruit thousands of new fighters, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The Iranian-backed Shia militant group has begun drawing fighters from across the sectarian divide, including Sunnis, Christians and Druze, in an effort to create a united opposition to the government... Last night, Lebanese Brigadier Gen Amin Hotait warned that Hezbollah had expanded its recruiting to bring Sunni, Christian and Druze fighters together under the banner of an opposition. He said that the arming and recruiting campaign began after Hezbollah declared "divine victory" over Israel after the month-long war last year. It has been continued in defiance of calls by the United Nations Security Council and the Western-backed government in Beirut for Hezbollah to disarm.

Now we could go for the cheap and easy "Lebanon is the West Bank" punchline: there's something familiar about the State Department's Lebanon II strategy, where they prevented the IDF from dismantling an Iranian proxy in a futile attempt to bolster a fundamentally weak and electorally doomed slightly-more-moderate Arab regime. But we did that one last week. Instead we're going to go with the other cheap and easy "Lebanon is the West Bank" punchline: isn't it great how the US is giving cutting edge military tech to the Lebanese government, as if the local Iranian proxy could never, ever take it over electorally or militarily?

Incidentally, how can it possibly be the case that Hezbollah began rearming immediately after Lebanon II? The commander of UNIFIL seemed so sure when he condescendingly mocking Israelis for insisting that Hezbollah was rearming. It's almost like the State Department and the UN make things up to coerce Israel into making concessions, and then scapegoat Israel when their demonstrably false assumptions lead to policy disasters. Almost, right?

Oh, one more thing - the State Department outreach blog is asking "What Tangible Results are Necessary for the Annapolis Conference to be Deemed a Success?" We're not going to ask you to be constructive because, well, we don't care. All we ask is that you be funny (h/t: Jerold L)

References:
* Lebanon On Brink Of Civil War (Plus: State Department Prepares To Import Same Strategy To West Bank) [MR]
* Pentagon Gets Brilliant Idea: Let's Give Lebanon Cutting-Edge Military Tech, Training [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security I - UN Admits Hezbollah Is Rearming [MR]
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields) [MR]

Previously:
* Hezbollah: Yeah, We're Definitely Going To Start Another War
* The UN Makes It Official: There Is Absolutely No Agreement That Won't Be Changed If Israel's Genocidal Enemies Refuse To Accept For Long Enough
* Hezbollah Runs Massive Military Exercises, Lebanon Says It Was A "Simulation" And Complains When Israel Responds With Overflights

We've got a few more posts that still need to go live, but we're going to sandbag them until tomorrow because (a) we're lazy and (b) we're lazy. They'll go live tomorrow, but here's a little teaser to keep you coming back: turns out, the State Department blows. In the meantime, this should keep you busy for a little while:

* We've been trying to work this article into a post for the last week or so with no success. So here: Mausoleum of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat unveiled in Ramallah. It cost almost USD$2 million. That might seem like a lot, but the new $410 million infusion from the Bush administration should allow them to both honor past terrorists and supply future ones.

* One of the ostensible upshots of the Annapolis summit is that it's supposed to solidify a moderate Sunni block against Iran. Odds of success: vanishingly small.

* We were offline when the story broke about the illegal immigrant who, while working for the CIA and the FBI, gave US secrets to Hezbollah. Here you go. Nothing like this could ever happen in the State Department, because in Foggy Bottom helping Hezbollah is just called "going to work." Hardly an arrestable offense, although if we had our way...

* Totally inbounds, especially when used to make overly intrusive single-serving friends go away.

* State Department maneuvering during Lebanon II still working out great.

* Two-thirds of Americans are retards. Academicese rant about the story at MR blog Icon Index Symbol.

Previously:
* Arab and Muslim Conspiracy Theories - Iranian Holocaust Denial Edition
* Israel And AIPAC: We'll Respond To Walt And Mearsheimer When Their Vicious Anti-Semitism Gets Sophisticated Or Relevant (Plus: MR Is Suspicious About Leftist Pro-Mearsheimer Enthusiasm)
* Va. Tech Anti-Conspiracy Theory Intervention

The dozens of countries showing up to pressure Israel at Annapolis now have another bullet point on the agenda:

In the end, Washington decided to change the topic of the third session from "the Arab states' involvement in the process" to "the effort to achieve a comprehensive regional peace" - language that implies peace deals with Syria and Lebanon as well as the Palestinians. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak all left for Annapolis Saturday night. Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will lead a final round of talks aimed at drafting a joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration. Livni and Rice will also discuss the contents of the session on a comprehensive regional peace.

Since Israel can realistically refuse only so much before coming off as hopelessly intransigent, the State Department has taken to basically throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. As of this morning, it looks like Syria is willing to show up to see what the State Department can pressure Israel to hand over.

Why the Golan by the by? In order to get even more Arab countries to show up and help pressure Israel. This is being done even - specifically - at the expense of the US's most basic positions on the Middle East:

They'll come to watch the State Department pressure Israel to give away land and put the Jewish State in existential risk. But actually touching Jews - let's not get crazy:

Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations decided Friday to attend next week's US-sponsored Middle East peace conference, but the Saudi foreign minister insisted he would not allow "theatrics" like handshakes with Israeli officials, saying the gathering must make serious progress. Participation by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was a key goal of the United States to show strong Arab support for the conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which is to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the first time in seven years.

State Department process fetishism at its finest - as if just having the Saudis in the same building is the same thing as having them ready to accept the legitimacy of Israel. But at least there will be one more country ganging up on Israel to make concessions - Israel being the country that won its land in a defensive war against a united Arab enemy that was announcing its intention to wash the streets of Tel Aviv with Jewish blood. Because if there weren't a couple dozen countries all working together against Israel at Annapolis, something unjust might happen.

References:
* Saudi foreign minister says he will attend Annapolis meeting [JPost]

Previously:
* Hey Gals, Check This Out - You're Too Dirty To Walk On Saudi Arabia's Sidewalks
* The Saudi Peace Initiative: A Discrete Way to Destroy Israel, Based on an Ethical Lie
* Kids Being Brainwashed To Hate Jews In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Egypt, Iran, Etc Etc [Videos]

In January a couple stories broke that US development assistance was going to fund Hamas weapons and propaganda. In March a Washington Times investigation uncovered that almost $150,000 of US assistance had gone directly to a single Hamas institution. In April it was revealed that the State Department had deliberately suspended their review process so they could circumvent US anti-terrorism laws and keep funding terrorists (seriously!). Now it turns out - shockingly - that the State Department may be funding Palestinian terrorists:

The U.S. government can't be sure taxpayer money isn't winding up in terrorists' pockets, it admitted recently. According to a recent government audit stamped "Sensitive but Unclassified" obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. Agency for International Development can't be sure that some of the billions in aid it distributes annually doesn't go to individuals or groups with terrorist ties, the paper reported. "Although it conducts programs in countries where terrorism is a major concern, USAID has not developed or instituted a worldwide anti-terrorism program," the Tribune quoted from the audit prepared by the USAID inspector general. "USAID risks providing funding or other material support and resources to terrorists or terrorist organizations."... Rep. Mark Kirk, D-Ill., requested the audit after learning that USAID, the nation's largest distributor of foreign aid, had on occasion approved money for questionable recipients, including the Palestinian group Hamas, labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. government... A USAID spokesman told the Tribune the agency was "taking [the report] very seriously."

Yeah, we're sure they're treating it with the highest concern. This report is slightly inaccurate of course - it's not that USAID has never developed an anti-terrorism program. It's that they killed the last one, allowing them to continue funding Palestinian "charities" that funnel money directly to Hamas.

The great thing about this mini-scandal is that even if USAID funds weren't directly going to purchase weapons and propaganda for terrorists, they'd still be going to purchase weapons and propaganda for terrorists. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, the State Department pours money into the Gaza Strip - and somehow that money gets to Hamas. Who could have guessed?

In other news, the Bush administration has decided to give more than $400,000 of new assistance to the Palestinians. No doubt it will be overseen with all of the care that the State Department is famous for when it comes to not funding Palestinian terrorists.

References:
* News Roundup - 2007-01-24 [MR]
* US State Department Has Been Funding Hamas Terrorists For Years. No Kidding. [MR]
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video] [MR]
* Feds May Fund Terror, Report Says [ABC News]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* US Unviels $410 Million's Worth Of Assistance That Will Shortly Be Siezed By Hamas [MR]

Previously:
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure
* Dozens Of Fatah Police Officers Defect To AQ (Plus: Israeli "Goodwill Gesture" - 300 Palestinian Policemen To Deploy Around Nablus)
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)

We'd like to be the first to congratulate the State Department on the success of their clearheaded Lebanon II strategy. Keeping the IDF on a leash to keep the Siniora regime stable is working out awesome:

Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before he was set to leave office after it was unable to convene due to an opposition boycott Friday. The failure puts the country in a potentially explosive political vacuum. Speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement that the session was postponed for a week until Nov. 30 to give more time "for additional consultations to reach a consensus on electing a president." The opposition-aligned Berri made the decision 30 minutes after the legislature failed to muster the necessary two-thirds quorum to begin voting. It followed talks with leaders of the parliamentary majority... In the absence of a president, the anti-Syrian government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora takes executive power under the constitution. But the pro-Syrian Lahoud has vowed not to hand his authorities over to Saniora's administration, considering it unconstitutional after all five ministers of the Shiite Muslim community quit a year ago... The most dangerous scenario is that Lahoud could create an alternative government and hand it his power. Saniora's Western-backed government would likely refuse to step aside, leaving Lebanon with two rival governments, much like during the last two years of the 1975-90 civil war.

The State Department tried to bolster a fundamentally weak, somewhat pro-Western regime against Iranian proxies by de facto protecting those proxies from the IDF. Surprisingly, that didn't work. But maybe next time - Abbas, Hamas, Annapolis, etc. Because things always turn out differently when you try the exact same things over and over again, right?

References:
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Lebanon Fails to Elect President [TIME]

Previously:
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)

Blair and Barak just promised the Palestinians a bevy of economic incentives, but that's not helping them get what they're actually after:

In a surprise move, the Palestinian Authority on Monday set pre-conditions for participating in the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The PA also said it would stay away from the conference unless key Arab countries participated in it. The pre-conditions were announced following the weekly meeting of the PA cabinet in Ramallah. Two top PA envoys, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Akram Haniyeh, have been dispatched to Washington to relay the new demands to US officials, a PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post. The meeting was chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

If the Syrians show up, they've said they'll hold the entire conference hostage unless Israel agrees to give them back the Golan. If the Saudis show up, they've said they'll hold the entire conference hostage unless they get their own list of demands. All of these countries - to say nothing of the hopelessly weak Abbas - have functionally zero to offer Israel. Even if they did, they certainly have nothing that won't be chipped away to nothingness over the next half decade or so.

Riddle us this: if the Palestinians want the conference to succeed, why would they set it up so that Israel is given the longest possible list of concessions, some of which have nothing to do with the Palestinians?

References:
* Blair unveils plan to boost PA economy [JPost]
* PA sets pre-conditions for Annapolis [JPost]
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process [MR]
* Abbas: "If You Don't Give Me Everything I Won't Accept Anything" [MR]

Previously:
* Liberal Think Tank: East J'lem Handover Not Enough To Appease Palestinians, Will Increase Terrorism (Plus: Losing East J'lem Now Means Losing The Temple Mount Later)
* Celebrity Concerts For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Canceled Because Of Terrorism Threats
* Israeli Security Foils 7 Suicide Bombings From Fatah-Controlled West Bank

This afternoon's One Jerusalem conference call was with Ambassador John Bolton. Also on the call: Jerry Gordon (Israpundit), Rick Richman (Jewish Current Issues), Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), TigerHawk, Avi Green (Tel-Chai Nation), and Carl (Israel Matzav). Allen Roth was in his usual moderator perch and audio will soon be made available on the One Jerusalem frontpage. Ambassador Bolton was on the call to discuss his new book, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations.

For decades foreign policy elites and institutions have been getting things dramatically wrong. Their miscalculations are the result of bureaucratic inertia, institutional bias, and a pathetic investment in personal sophistication. As an example - and we don't remember the source of this quote - the State Department's problem in evaluating the Middle East is that the Arabs aren't Arabists. They don't send out covert signals about their intentions that can only be detected by trained Western experts who have studied at the knees of Juan Cole (not just a vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet - a particularly pretentious vaguely unintelligent apologist for the worst scum on the planet). Rather, when Israel's Arab enemies say that they'll never accept the Jewish State - as the moderates in Fatah did yet again a few days ago - they actually mean that.

But foreign policy elites ignore that. Things can't be that simple. If it is then the State Department's insistence on dialogue and engagement becomes something in between willful appeasement and unintentional treason. Their fundamental misunderstanding of the enemy has caused the enslavement of billions, first to Communism and now to Islamofascism. They just can't stop losing ground. Sometimes the parcels of land they lose are the size of Gaza, sometimes they're the size of Iran. And yet the people who are in charge of promoting US interests - demonstrably abject failures in the cases of Gaza and Iran - suffer almost no institutional consequences. In many circles Jimmy Carter's advice on foreign policy is considered the height of sophistication. So of course Condi is getting advice from him on Annapolis.

And of course, Keith Dayton - the man who lost Gaza for the State Department - is failing again in the West Bank. Maybe he could have been more successful if he had spent less time mocking Israeli security concerns to Congress and more time not being an abject failure. But then he'd have to give up his self-declared sophisticated understanding of the Palestinians. And why bother doing that when you can blame the whole thing on Israel? Obviously, he's being given more money and resources to try again. Because why not?

For decades the discerning analysts in the State Department insisted that - despite all outward signs - Iranian moderates were gaining strength within the regime. Opps. No really, opps.

But these people still think it's perfectly reasonable for them to mock Ambassador Bolton and those who agree with him. Because the Ambassador is just so unsophisticated, you see.

References:
* Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations by John Bolton
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]
* MR Cracks the Code: Juan Cole Is Not "Wrong" - He's Just "Deploying the Technique of the Hermeneutical Circle" [MR]
* 'No Jewish state'
* Rice Gets Advice From Jmmy Carter And James Baker On How To Pressure Israel [MR]
* Smug Condescending Sophisticates Admit They've Been Lying Through Their Teeth About Israeli Security II - State Department Admits That Their Fatah Security Assistance Is An Abject Failure [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]

Previously:
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields)
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal "No Jews Allowed" Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes

The Syrians have taken what was left of the reactor that Israel humiliatingly bombed and made it disappear. Now WaPo reports that they'd been building that thing since 2003:

The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it. The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program. A senior American intelligence official said yesterday that American analysts had looked carefully at the site from its early days, but were unsure then whether it posed a nuclear threat.

Allah's got some theories about what forced Israel's hand as well as some choice words about the emerging "it was Bush's fault" media meme. It's obviously how liberal anti-Bush folks will be spinning the news, but it also has the unfortunate benefit of being obviously true. Which is not to say that there wasn't a debate within the Administration about the development of a Syrian nuclear program - but it does mean that the de facto pro-Sryian voices of "engagement" won. And where were those voices coming from? Hmm:

"Israel tends to be very thorough about its intelligence coverage, particularly when it takes a major military step, so they would not have acted without data from several sources," said ABC military consultant Tony Cordesman. A senior U.S. official said the Israelis planned to strike during the week of July 14 and in secret high-level meetings American officials argued over how to respond to the intelligence. Some in the administration supported the Israeli action, but others, notably Sect. of State Condoleeza Rice did not. One senior official said the U.S. convinced the Israelis to "confront Syria before attacking."

The awesome thing is that Israel probably had a mole in the facility, which means that the State Department's request for Israel to "confront" would have outed an intelligence asset and given the Syrians the heads up to start preparing for an IAF attack. These people should be fired. All of them.

After the jump, pure awesomeness.

From a previous post about abject failure Keith Dayton:

US Lt-Gen Keith Dayton - the guy in charge of giving weapons and training to Fatah - officiously demanded that Israel make Gaza-related security concessions because Hamas was nothing to worry about. He insisted that "Hamas was weakening" even while Hamas was obviously gaining strength (how did he avoid the obvious contradiction: he blamed it on Israel naturally). He became a sarcastic prick when Congresspeople asked him about Israeli claims that Hamas was getting ready to take over Gaza. Then Hamas took over the Gaza Strip a couple weeks later. No worries - the State Department pressured Congress to move him to the West Bank and start all over. Because he's obviously both a gifted military analyst and very good at his job.

In a shocking turn of events, Dayton is failing in the West Bank too:

The United States security coordinator in the Palestinian Authority said he does not believe Palestinian security forces in the West Bank are capable of enforcing security needs in cities there, according to statements made recently in private talks. General Keith Dayton's views are seconded by the PA, which recently informed Israel that it lacks the necessary infrastructure to deploy police officers in Nablus... Israeli security sources believe the PA is concerned it may find it difficult to meet the task of gaining control over Nablus, especially when they will be asked to confront armed gangs, some of them affiliated with Fatah.

This is really disappointing for us because we had such high hopes for him. But given Dayton's massive success in training Fatah security forces in the past, we have no doubt that he'll be able to bring them up to snuff. Or he'll blame Israel for his own failures. Whatever. [Photo]

References:
* State Department, UN Make Things Up To Coerce Israeli Concessions, Scapegoat Israel When Plans Fail (Plus: Hezbollah Now Openly Bragging About Using Civilian Human Shields) [MR]
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong? [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank [MR]
* U.S. official doubts ability of PA to police West Bank [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* US: Yeah, We'll Keep Giving Weapons and Training To Fatah. What Could Go Wrong?
* US To Lift Embargo, Pour Money and Weapons Into West Bank
* UN Set To Blame Israel For Intentional, Hamas-Engineered Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza

We always feel special when we see hits coming from webmail clients because it shows that someone was sufficiently enamored to subject another human being - ostensibly a friend - to one of our posts. A little past midnight this morning someone got from their Yahoo client to this post about Secretary Rice, who's been saying for over a year that the perfect time for a Palestinian state is right now. Hmm:

Domain Name: state.gov (U.S. Government)
IP Address: [...] (U.S. Department of State)
ISP: U.S. Department of State
Browser: Internet Explorer 6.0
Time of Visit: Oct 18 2007 12:33:46 am

Up at 3:00am EST? Now we know why they're always making mindbendingly stupid decisions during the day. We always thought it was an ingrained and institutional anti-Israel culture. Turns out it's just exhaustion.

References:
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]

Previously:
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video]
* US State Department Shines Again
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans

The frustrating thing is that institutionally anti-Israel spokespeople - the public faces of organizations with ingrained anti-Israel biases like the UN and the State Department - get to just make things up. And not only do they get to make things up, but they get to make things up with no consequences for their credibility or their careers when they're contradicted within days or weeks.

US Lt-Gen Keith Dayton - the guy in charge of giving weapons and training to Fatah - officiously demanded that Israel make Gaza-related security concessions because Hamas was nothing to worry about. He insisted that "Hamas was weakening" even while Hamas was obviously gaining strength (how did he avoid the obvious contradiction: he blamed it on Israel naturally). He became a sarcastic prick when Congresspeople asked him about Israeli claims that Hamas was getting ready to take over Gaza. Then Hamas took over the Gaza Strip a couple weeks later. No worries - the State Department pressured Congress to move him to the West Bank and start all over. Because he's obviously both a gifted military analyst and very good at his job.

French Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano - the guy in charge of UNIFIL's mission to implement UN resolutions and prevent Hezbollah from rearming - condescendingly and all but openly mocked Israelis for claiming that Hezbollah was returning to their former strength. Two money quotes here: "we also do not see a rearmament happening" and "we are physically patrolling every corner of southern Lebanon and if there was a bunker [system] we would have found it." Opps:

More than a year later, the Lebanese guerilla group appears to be again solidly entrenched across the country's south - looking, in fact, as if its fighters never really left but merely went underground. The Shiite Muslim militia's banners hang everywhere, boasting of the "divine victory" over Israel and thanking its chief sponsor, Shiite-majority Iran, for helping with post-war reconstruction... Hizbullah appears to be in a strong position north and south of the Litani, both in its political wing and as a militia... Villagers across the south point to various places they say are arms depots for Hizbullah, but it was not possible to verify their statements.

They just make stuff up based either on ego, institutional bias, or sheer stupidity. Then they demand that Israel make security concessions as if their delusions of competence and grandeur were true. Because what's the worst thing that could happen if they're wrong - it's just some Israelis getting killed.

This quote will obviously become totally irrelevant the next time that Israel is hysterically blamed for killing civilians, but just for the sake of pretending that there are still rational people out there:

Hizbullah boasts that it is both everywhere and nowhere, meaning it's hard to tell who's a civilian and who's a fighter. "Hizbullah is not from Mars, they're the people of this land," said Hussein Ayoub, a 40-year-old Shiite in the nearby village of Selaa. Ayoub said he lost six cousins last year when Israeli planes bombed two houses in Selaa. "They are among us, even if we don't see them," interjected his uncle, Ahmed Ayoub. "That guy over there may be a Hizbullah, or that one," he said, pointing to his son, who's really a policeman, not a militiaman.

This is how it happens: the UN promises to fix something, they make it worse, they endanger Israeli civilians, and then they blame the Jewish State so they don't have to admit that their spineless approach to international relations and their manifest incompetence have failed.

References:
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong? [MR]
* State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank [MR]
* Katyushas Hit Israel Two Days After UNIFIL Commander Promises Peace [MR]
* Hizbullah getting stronger in Lebanon [JPost]

Previously:
* How Badly Does the UN Draft Screw Israel? Part II: Hezbollah Not Really So Much Included
* UN Set To Blame Israel For Intentional, Hamas-Engineered Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza
* UN Building Hit in Lebanon. UN, AP blame Israel. Yawn.

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

Because apparently having Syria sitting at the table and making demands isn't enough. US foreign policy geniuses want to bring in a second Iranian proxy and pressure Israel to meet their demands too:

Five former U.S. State Department and Pentagon officials are proposing that Hamas be a participant in final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In a six-page policy statement submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, they also suggested a series of peace conferences following the one she hopes to convene next month, probably in Annapolis, Maryland, near Washington. Hamas, which controls Gaza and about one-third of Palestinian-held land, has not met U.S. terms for attending. Those conditions are recognizing Israel's right to exist and abandoning the path of violence. But the ex-officials suggested Hamas might be drawn to attend a second conference, which implicitly would accept the first one and Israel's existence. They called the role of Hamas the most difficult issue in peacemaking.

Brilliant idea. As long as Hamas doesn't make an explicit statement saying that they're trying to destroy Israel this week, they get to demand concessions that make it easier for them to try to destroy Israel next week. Seems reasonable and not at all like US State Department officials are willing to sacrifice Israeli security for the appearance of a temporary peace deal.

References:
* State Department Gets Bright Idea: Let's Screw Israel Even More By Bundling Syria Into The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
* U.S. policy paper calls for Hamas to be a participant in final status talks [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Abbas Is Lying Either To Israel or To the Palestinians - Either Way, It Makes a Peace Deal Impossible
* Giving Land To Fatah Is Giving Land To Hamas - Ramp Up To November Edition
* Mere Rhetoric Evaluates Palestinian Opinion Poll, Walks Away Unsurprised

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

What a bunch of retards:

A U.S. State Department-funded University of California program which provides business training for residents of the Middle East specifically excluded Israeli Jews - until Jewish journalists protested... Miriam Schwab uncovered the bias last week when she checked into applying to the university's San Diego branch Beyster Institute program for Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET). She discovered that the program was open to citizens of "Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel (limited to Israeli Arab citizens), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen."...

The MEET program ostensibly "does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, religion, national origin, or handicap."... Israeli Jews originally were excluded despite the program’s stated advantage as "an important cultural exchange." Fuller did not explain the initial "confusion" in barring Israeli Jews....

The US Embassy of Yemen online document which announces the program was down for more than a day until the words "limited to Israeli Arab citizens" were deleted... The US official who made the online edit, however, reposted the story in "track changes" format so that the document displays in the left margin, at the time of this writing, the words: "Deleted: Limited to Israeli Arab citizens."

We're going to make you click through to Yid With Lid to get the rest of the story - including where things stand now - and for screenshots of the incompetently-cleansed document. We're a little more interested in the legal ramifications. This appears to be a clear case of discrimination by a US government agency dedicated to advancing US interests in the Middle East. It's a near-perfect example of the soft, everyday institutional anti-Semitism of the State Department. A lot of people should be fired, and at least a couple of them should be sued.

The State Department will begin walking this back, and they'll no doubt insist that any applications from Israeli Jews will be treated fairly - treated fairly by the very same people who wrote an explicitly anti-Semitic application in the first place. So in addition to having a perfect example of institutional anti-Semitism, we'll no doubt be treated to a paradigm case of nudge-nudge wink-wink "no bias against Israeli Jews here" diplomatic pretense.

State Department culture is obviously a complex and multileveled thing, but it does seem to produce officials who reflexively denigrate Israeli Jews in order to suck up to Arabs and Muslims. Sure there's all the stuff about the peace process, but we suppose that's at least somewhat debatable. Less debatable: the time that they wouldn't accept Israeli aid for post-Katrina New Orleans because they were afraid it would piss off Arab and Muslim donors.

References:
* Univ. of Cal. Backs Down from 'No Jews Allowed' Program [INN]
* U.S. State Dept Funded "No Jews Allowed" Program [Yid With Lid]
* State Department Anti-Israel Ideology Gets Silly, Kills Americans [MR]

Previously:
* US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Sure why not? If we're already all sitting down to pressure Israel to make concessions that endanger its existence - why not go the whole distance:

When we were taught Israeli-Arab Peace Process 101, it was an ironclad principle that Israel pushes for bilateral talks with each individual Arab enemy and the Arabs push for multilateral talks with Israel. Why? Because when the Arab states combine their negotiating strength they can make demands in unison: "hey Israel, you want this concession from the Palestinians? Well then you're also going to have to give back the Golan to Syria." Israel has to give something to every Arab state in order to get anything that it wants.

That's why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that - teamwork). They understand that the State Department has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they're ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn't successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.

References:
* Rice: Syria may attend Mideast peace conference in Washington [CNN]
* Abbas: "If You Don't Give Me Everything I Won't Accept Anything" [MR]
* U.S. Faces a Middle East Hungry for Peace Specifics [WaPo]

Previously:
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"
* State Department Kills Congressional Instructions, Figures Out Way To Fund Hamas [Video]
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers
* Israpundit

Because honestly, why wouldn't they?

Here's a video we haven't posted in a while. It randomly came over the YouTube feed this morning, so why not:

Luckily, the mid-level career civil servants at the State Department are sophisticated enough to understand all the benefits of funding people who openly declare themselves to be mortal enemies of the US and its allies.

References:
* Report: U.S. Funding Hamas Groups (8/28/07) [The Bulletin]
* Cruel twisted evil Palestinians cheering 9/11 [rachdingue / YouTube]

Previously:
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah
* The State Department - Traitorous Incompetents or Incompetent Traitors?
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers

We just don't have the energy for this any more:

Here's an idea: if you want to bolster Abbas's forces, try not doing exactly what didn't work last time you tried it. Insane proposition, we know - if something doesn't work, try something new. But we're not highly trained State Department analysts, so what do we know. Maybe it will work this time.

Here's Dayton blaming Israel for Hamas rocket attacks at the beginning of June - because it can't possibly be that he was failing to sufficiently strengthen Fatah against Hamas.

Here's Dayton pressuring Israel to make security concessions a few weeks before the Hamas takeover - because since he was sufficiently strengthening Fatah, Israel could afford to take the risk.

Here's Dayton assuring Congress that he had successfully strengthened Fatah over Hamas, and complaining about how Israel was being unreasonable for not recognizing that. A few days later, of course, Hamas forces effortlessly routed the Dayton-coordinated Fatah forces in a matter of days.

He's obviously a successful security coordinator and a keen military analyst. Let's give him more money and weapons for the Palestinians. What could go wrong?

References:
* US wants to train Fatah in West Bank [JPost]
* US Security Envoy Blames Israel For Palestinian Rocket Attack On Israel. Or Something. [Video] [MR]
* US To Bring Abject Failure Of Security Assistance To West Bank, Renew Pressure On Israel. What Could Go Wrong? [MR]
* Memo To Foreign Policy Sophisticates - You'd Sound A Lot Less Stupid If You Stopped Mixing Your Condescension With Demonstrably False Fantasies Of Competence [MR]

Previously:
* US: Yeah, We'll Keep Giving Weapons and Training To Fatah. What Could Go Wrong?
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

Remember how the US kept Israel on a short leash last summer, lest a too-strong strike against Hezbollah destabilize the Lebanese government (that, by the by, Hezbollah was a member of at the time)? Remember how this prevented Israel from bringing the IDF's full force to bear against Iran's proxy, and how eventually the US allowed the UN to step in because Israeli didn't win Lebanon II fast enough? Isn't that paying off bloody dividends:

Militarily, diplomatically, and economically - the United States (and the West more generally) has failed to commit the resources necessary to winning the war against Middle Eastern Islamic fascists. That the various sects and strands of fascists are working together is hardly a surprise, given the circumstances (except the oh-so-nuanced left, which sees distinctions everywhere!)

Prediction: if "international diplomacy" succeeds in forcing Israel to let Hamas terrorists out of the Gaza Strip, you can expect to see not of a few of them end up in Iraq as well.

References:
* Officials: Captured Hezbollah agent helped plan deadly Karbala raid [CNN]

Previously:
* World To Give More Reconstruction Aid To Lebanon. Still Nothing For Israel.
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah
* Hezbollah Gloats - We Spent A Month Hiding Behind the UN's Skirts, So We Won!

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit

Super:

(1) If the Palestinians are so opposed to Israel that it's impossible to get them into talks, then isn't rewarding them with talks and concessions a recipe for failure?

(2) Isn't their something insulting - not to mention absurd - about promising the Palestinians concessions from Israel in talks that Israel isn't even invited to?

Or maybe it makes sense to have the US promise Israeli security concessions to people who are so bent on murdering Israelis that they won't even meet them. No seriously - it might make sense. What do we know?

References:
* Rice sets out new approach to reviving peace efforts

Previously:
* Secretary Rice: Sure, Abbas Is Allied With Genocidal Maniacs. That Doesn't Mean We Shouldn't Help Him.
* Condi NYT Quote Fabricated? Not So Fast
* US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel

Not like dumb because it's wrong or dumb because it's pretentious. Dumb because it's retarded.

And by retarded, we mean stupid:

Now you're thinking "well obviously, the reason that's stupid is because Japan produced one of the most brutal colonialist war machines of the last century". But that's not even where we're at. Oh no - this is stupid on way, way deeper levels:

Yeah, so that.

References:
* Japan's FM: Japan doing what US can't [JPost]

Previously:
* Why Can't Condi Be More Convincing?
* Seriously, We Think That Secretary Rice Screwed Up This Summit Thing
* Rice Rejects Bush's Roadmap, Drops Demands That Palestinians Stop Terrorism Before Declaring State

We've been wondering how the US State Department will circumvent all those seemingly clear statements about not dealing with any government that wants to wipe out Israel. Query. Answered:

That makes perfect sense. Hamas gets to (a) control the Palestinian Authority and (b) openly commit terrorist acts like the one from yesterday. Meanwhile, ministers who literally and formally and legally and diplomatically speak for Hamas will be free to demand land from Israel because they - personaly - are slightly more moderate. They're not moderate enough not to sit with Hamas and provide a figleaf for Hamas's genocidal intentions. But they're still slightly more moderate.

We don't know how else we can say it - helping people who are allied with Hamas helps Hamas. Putting money into the Palestinian economy helps the Palestinian government, which is Hamas. Meeting with Palestinian government officials legitimizes the Palestinian government, which is Hamas. And so on and so on.

Bonus idiocy:

It's nice to see that the State Department is devoting so many resources to figure out how to circumvent Congress's clear intent not to help terrorists. But we understand. It's the State Department's job to be international diplomats, and of the rules of international diplomacy is that we have to maintain the fiction that the Palestinians desperately want a peace deal. Even if there's overwhelming evidence - televised, literary, electoral, etc - to the contrary. What's the worst thing that can happen if we're wrong? What, some Israeli civilians die? Pfft.

References:
* US may talk with non-Hamas ministers [JPost]

Previously:
* VDH On International Diplomacy and Israel
* EU Diplomacy with Hezbollah Yields Typical Results; Regional War Possible
* US Public Diplomacy, Tact Don't Extend To Israel

When we were writing about this yesterday, we didn't even notice this part in the writeup:

The Islamic University of Gaza was founded by Hamas spiritual leader Yassin in the aftermath of the Camp David Accords, in order to create a base for terrorist attacks on Egyptian pro-peace forces and Israelis (see also Levitt at NRO). It has counted among its faculty such arch-terrorists as Abdul Rantissi, the head of Hamas until Israel put a stop to him.

But McCormack insists it was OK to pour US funds into there because... it has no connections to terrorists. It's the intellectual and sometimes military stronghold of Hamas - but sending students there and funding it in no way benefits Hamas. That's the official position of the United States State Department.

Take some time to mull that over.

References:
* State Dept: US scholarships did not support jihadists
* Moderately Deadly
* A History of the Hamas Movement
* Palestine History [note: a terrorist-sympathizing website]

Previously:
* A Neoconservative Manifesto?
* More Leaks Point To Democrats Holding Talks With Hamas Terrorists
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"

[Cross-posted to The Astute Bloggers]

Do these people have any shame at all:

This again? Really? Let's go over this, all in one place. First, the US shouldn't support Abbas. He's either unable to stop terrorism, a terrorist supporter, or a terrorist leader. In any case, he has repeatedly declared that he's opposed to US policy:

(1) In the best case, just kind of pathetically weak and prone to reflexive anti-Semitic Holocaust denial. He denies Israel's right to self-defense. This is a problem because he also denies that Hamas has to recognize Israel. That puts him functionally and definitionally at odds with US policy. And so they're supporting him why?

(2) In anything less than the best case, this guy is a slightly less repressed, slightly less powerful version of Yasser Arafat. No one's under any illusions any more that the terrorist Al Aksa Brigades answer to him. Which makes sense, since he has encouraged the Palestinians to turn their guns on the Israelis. Doesn't seem like a good guy to give guns to, under those circumstances.

(3) In the worst case - and here he has been unfortunately explicit - he actually endorses the de facto destruction of Israel. Which makes him functionally different from Hamas in absolutely no way. If the US rejects Hamas, it doesn't seem reasonable for them to support Abbas.

(4) Oh, and then there's that little part where he agreed to a unity government with Hamas, siding with them against the US. Making him, you know, a bad ally.

Now let's pretend that Abbas was someone the US would like, in the abstract, to support. They still shouldn't give him weapons because those weapons will end up in Hamas's hands. The US can't even keep their own F-14 parts from getting to Iran. They can't keep their own Iraqi weapons and salaries from getting to terrorists. How are they going to prevent Terrorist A from hoisting body armor over a backyard fence in Ramallah at 1am, and giving it to Terrorist B?

Oh, and just for good measure: every street that Abbas secures for Hamas is a street's worth of Hamas weapons that get turned on Israeli civilians.

The US State Department should stop with this fetishistic game, where they arm and train Palestinian thugs as if they were peacemakers - and then expect them to actually become peacemakers.

References:
* U.S.: Aid package to PA depends on funds not benefiting Hamas
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - Abbas Sulks A Lot, Fails to Stop Terrorism [MR]
* Abbas: Recognizing Israel Not Required [MR]
* Oh, So The Al-Aqsa Terrorist Brigade Is Loyal To Abbas After All? [MR]
* The Oh-So-Moderate Abbas Urges Palestinians To Unite, Target Israelis
* Bonus Outrage: Abbas Rejects Two-State Solution, Eilat Bombing Happened After Israel Released Money To Him Anyway
* Done and Done: Abbas Takes US Money and Cutting Edge Weapons, Tells the US That He's Siding With Hamas Anyway
* US Government To Give Palestinian Terrorists Cutting-Edge Weapons [MR]
* US Officials Couldn't Keep Track Of Their Own Weapons If They Were Buried Up Their Collective... [MR]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible)

Previously:
* In Just Seven Short Paragraphs, Jimmy Carter Tells 2 Lies, Makes 2 Incoherent Arguments, Takes an Anti-Israel Stance that the State Department Mocks, and Just Generally Annoys the Hell Out of Us
* Seriously, We Think That Secretary Rice Screwed Up This Summit Thing
* US State Department: Lebanon Is Not Responsible for Hezbollah

You know what's so infuriating about the State Department's fake surprise? It's that everybody knew that of course this was happening:

Don't just focus on how USAID money was openly being used to celebrate terrorism, and nobody cared because - well, you know - that's just the Palestinians being the Palestinians. That's too easy to figure out. Too much unsophisticated "reality". And that's before we even get to the idea that every dollar of humanitarian aid from the US is one more dollar that Hamas can move to their terrorist infrastructure

So forget about "evidence" for now. Just think about this in the abstract - the totally, totally inevitable abstract. Hamas supporters make up way, way more than half of the Gaza Strip. And so if you pour money into the Gaza Strip, who the hell did the State Department think they were going to be helping?

That's why it's a bad idea to reward people who elect genocidal maniacs. And the Palestinians who elected Hamas have been rewarded - aid has actually increased by 10 percent since the election! Because apparently, our problem is with the Palestinian leaders... but not with the people who choose to make them leaders! How does this even make sense? Like if you're in the State Department, how do you say it to yourself and then think "yeah, that makes sense". How many years in Diplomacy School do we have to go through before we gain that level of sophistication?

When the Germans supported the Nazis, nobody said "oh, well it's just their leaders that we have a problem with - not actually the German people". You know why nobody said that? Because that's retarded. It's this stupid idea that international sophisticates know what the Palestinian public is "really" like - and coincidentally, that "real" public doesn't support terrorism at all. Even though the Palestinian public repeatedly indicates by every measure we have that yes ,in fact they really do support genocidal terrorism - they just don't know as much about themselves as international experts do. And so the US State Department and USAID insisted on giving money to the supporters of genocidal lunatics - and somehow that money ended up helping the genocidal lunatics themselves. Who could have seen that coming?

Here's our idea: when a majority of people elect a warmongering, genocide-advocating government, the US and Europe should cut their aid. We know it's a radical idea, but maybe that way we can avoid the embarrassment where ostensibly smart people pretend that funding the supporters of terrorism has nothing to do with funding terrorists.

Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. The US poured money into the Gaza Strip. Honestly, where did they think that money was going? Ponies and cotton candy?

References:
* 'US funds reached Hamas-linked institutions' [YNet]
* Palestinians' 'Saddam Street' funded by USAID [MR]
* Why "Humanitarian Aid" is a Myth (Or: the Definition of the Word Fungible) [MR]
* Foreign Aid To Palestinians Has Increased By 10 Percent Since Hamas Election [MR]

Previously:
* Not Content With Not Cutting Off Palestinian Aid, US Will Actually Increase Funding to Supporters of Terrorism
* Technical, Academic Description of EU Justifications for Palestinian Aid
* Done and Done: Abbas Takes US Money and Cutting Edge Weapons, Tells the US That He's Siding With Hamas Anyway

[Cross-posted to Israpundit]

Of course they are:

At this point, we're tempted to just snark something like "money well spent", and leave it at that. But there's actually something going on here: the biggest complaint from the Left is that reconstruction has been bungled because the US relied too much on a military solution and not enough on diplomacy (at least that's their complaint when they're not advocating retroactively sending in more troops that they never would have agreed to send at the time). But the State Department is too involved in Iraq - there are too many diplomats with their own unique vision of how to be properly cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Too many career diplomats. And somehow, things are not working out. For the umpteenth time this week, we're totally shocked.

References:
* How Much Embassy Is Too Much? [WaPo]

Previously:
* US State Department Shines Again
* The State Department - Traitorous Incompetents or Incompetent Traitors?
* US State Department: By "Shun" Terrorist Governments We Mean "Not Shun"

Oh really?

Well in a way, she's kind of right. Hitler wanted to wipe out his enemies so he could take over their land and create living space for Germans. Iran has no intention of occupying Israel after they destroy it, because they figure that it'll be totally irradiated.

Her argument for why it's not 1938 is because much of the world opposes Iran right now. We would remind her that much of the world opposed Germany too - just not enough to do anything about the rise of the Nazi war machine. But we have a feeling that she already knows that.

References:
* Rice: World response to Iran not the same as Nazi appeasement [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* Video: Iran Is Evil, Threatens To Destroy Israel, Murders Homosexuals
* Washington Post: We Were Wrong. Please Bomb Iran and Syria ASAP. Thank You.
* IAEA: Maybe Iran Is Developing Nukes and Maybe They're Not

Tough to know who's behind the leaks and why. But here you go:

The "destabilize the Middle East for years" part makes it sound like your typical, anti-Administration State Department leak (hey, that would be a first!) But this could also be an Administration leak to turn up the pressure on Iran. Either way, it's nonsense - the US simply does not have the boots to launch a full scale war against Iran.

Bonus: the bottom of the article discusses the centrality of oil - and of oil prices - to the rudimentary Iranian economy. If Saudi Arabia really does what they've been threatening - amp up production and crash oil prices - then things could get quite interesting indeed.

Previously: Turns Out, Iran Won't Stop Developing The Nukes That They Really, Really Want, Iran Sanctions Blah Blah Blah, OneJerusalem.org Conference Call with Senator Rick Santorum