Friday March 25, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Dan Kurtzer, the United States Ambassador to Israel, has once again inserted his foot in his mouth.

His announcement, in a closed door meeting last week, that there is no understanding between the US and Israel that large settlement blocks will remain in place in the final peace arrangement, is just the latest example of how very undiplomatic this chief diplomat really is.

Now he denies having said that.
But the report came from a transcript of the presentation.
He is dead wrong.

There is a letter from George Bush to Ariel Sharon clearly articulating that things are different today than they were in 1967, and that a total Jewish evacuation of the West Bank is not realistic.
Maybe Kurtzer was playing bad cop.
Maybe he was floating a balloon.
Any way you look at it, he was not being diplomatic.

Kurtzer also said that Israeli leaders and diplomats do not understand nuance.
Again, not very diplomatic.
But at least there, he got it right.