Rice Can Stay Home
Barak to tell Rice Israel living up to its commitmentsUS secretary of state expected to attend three-way meeting with Israeli defense minister, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad. American diplomats tell Jerusalem visit will be different than predecessors, warn that lack of progress on the ground bodes ill for Annapolis achievements
"Having said this, Israel's actions depend first and foremost on the need to defend its citizens," Defense Minister Ehud Barak is expected to tell US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice upon the latter's visit to the region this weekend.
Rice will arrive ahead of schedule for a round of high-profile meetings intended to inject energy into the peace process, which the US fears is losing momentum.
On Sunday the secretary will hold a joint press conference with Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni and later join Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad for a three-way meeting.
Both Israel and the Palestinians see Rice's upcoming visit – a mere three weeks after her last trip to the region – as a reprimand of sorts. Jerusalem and Ramallah understand that America is desperate to revitalize the process.
While Livni and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia report progress has been made in their ongoing talks – the impression on the ground is of stagnation.
Furthermore, all sides are concerned with – and are closely monitoring - Hamas' growing strength in the West Bank.
Let;s hope the process looses momentum and fails 100%, I don't think the American people are desperate to revitalize the death process of Israel.
Regarding the growing strangth of Hamas I know the answer to this problem.
It is called war.
Not the Second Lebanon war kind of war but WW2 kind of war will solve the Hamas problem.
