Bush’s Alfred E. Neuman impersonation is costing dozens of lives daily. Yes, we have only one president at a time, but I would feel a bit better if Obama stood up and said, “The carnage in Gaza is appalling, and I have asked President Bush to do all he can to stop it in his remaining weeks in office.”
The European Union remains incapable of persuading Israel to halt its war on Hamas and fill a gaping diplomatic vacuum as the world awaits a new U.S. president, experts said Tuesday.
As the conflict rages in the impoverished Gaza Strip, the EU has continued to do what it has always done best — offer humanitarian aid — but has been unable to fill the void as it holds no political leverage over U.S. ally Israel.
With a troika of envoys just leaving, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy still in the Middle East, the EU is showing “energy and creativity,” according to a Norwegian diplomat who helped negotiate the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
“But I think we also have to be aware of some facts of reality,” said the diplomat, Jan Egeland, who now heads the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
He said the United States “is duty-bound to push, and broker, and facilitate with all their might and influence over Israel” to push any peace efforts forward.
“The EU is in all my evening prayers,” he said. “We hope that they can broker something but … I don’t see the EU being able to make either Israel or Hamas change their behaviour.”
He insisted that only coordinated international pressure led by Washington, but including Russia and China, on the main regional players — Israel, Egypt and Iran — could really be efficient.
Janes Defense Weekly is estimating that Israel will stop its offensive within 10 days. Nice that they’re keeping the slaughter to a tight political schedule.
This murderous rampage will end up just like Lebanon in 2006: hundreds and perhaps thousands dead among those on the receiving end of Israel’s wrath, a few Israeli casualties, and only greater support for militants in Gaza.
Either the Israelis are incredibly stupid, or politics has once again trumped human life.
And, once again, Bush is handmaiden to an illegal war on illegally occupied ground.