And Then What

Abbas makes it more and more clear what he plans to bring to the proverbial table at the end of November. None of it surprises me because I've never given him much credit anyway. I could probably stop this little blog right here and many, if not most, of you would agree with me and we could go on our merry way.

But for the sake of clarification, I'll go into a little more specifics. What the heck. I'm not doing anything right now anyway.

Yesterday he told Condi (as in Rice) that he demanded all settlements to be removed. Oh, and the checkpoints be moved back to the 2000 border before the most recent Intifada (my count has it as Intifada LXXXVIII....there have been more Intifadas than Super Bowls, and I think there's something wrong with that). He also wants all prisoners released, control of the Old City, and assorted other goodies that we've all heard before.

This is all good. And in the essence of diplomacy, who could blame him. However, nobody is letting the man finish his sentence. At least, I hope he hasn't finished his sentence. You see, what's missing from the above list is the necessary adjunctive words, "...and in return we will..." Because that, my friends, is what we call "negotiation". As we all know from when we were trading baseball cards, that if I want Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris; I'm going to have to offer you Ernie Banks, Glenn Beckert, and Roy Campanella. I can't very well demand Musial, Mantle, and Maris and offer nothing substantive in return. Sure, I suppose I could use the Palestinian tactic of "give me Musial, Mantle, and Maris and I won't kick your ass". But I would hardly call that negotiations, would you?

If I were a smart Olmert (yes, that does seem to be an oxymoron for a complete moron), and Abbas approached me with these statements, I would just stand there quietly, patiently, and with a smile on my face. When asked what I was waiting for, I'd simply reply, "I'm waiting for you to finish your sentence."


Submitted by Charley