Rice Keeps Steady Eye on Sharon

I am glad Condoleezza Rice is keeping a close watch on Ariel Sharon as the Israelis pull back from Gaza. One can never trust the Israeli old fox, who won’t missed an opportunity to sabotage anything that benefits the Palestinians.

Rice flew into Israel to see what’s going on with the pullout, and took the opportunity to praise Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts in curbing the Arab militants. That should choke Sharon.

The Israelis put on a brave face and described the visit as one to show US involvement in the pullout was serious, following criticism that it was not doing enough.

But it seems that Rice wants a wider scope to the whole affair, intending to see the US roadmap back on track. Sharon sabotaged the roadmap in earlier days when Yasser Arafat was still alive, and an inexperienced George Bush listened to everything Sharon told him including nasties about Arafat. Rice isn't going to be satisfied with just a Gaza pullout and intends to see a more comprehensive peace. She knows that the USA needs to mitigate its disastrous Iraqi adventure in the eyes of the Arab-Muslim world, and one way would be by swinging something in favour of the long suffering Palestinians.

She wants to hold an US-Russia co-sponsored international peace conference on the region by engaging Israel with Europe and the Gulf States. This is not going to sit too well with Ariel Sharon as he prefers, for obvious reasons, to deal with the US alone behind the Palestinians' back. An international conference and subsequent participation means there will be many eyes watching for and noting Ariel Sharon's monkey tricks.

But Rice isn’t going to tango with the Israeli.

The only country that can exert pressure on Israel to behave is the USA, with its deep pockets, gargantuan military logistics and superpower political status. Without the USA's backing, Israel won't last too long. True to form, the Israeli Pm put out his grubby hands to Rice for a couple of billion dollars handout.

Rice seems to be on top so far but she needs to watch her back with those staunch pro-Israel lobbyists in Washington, as Colin Powell found out too late. Well, my darling Condoleezza, as they say, there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.