#2 Yeah, yeah. A nice show by Bush of "even-handedness," so he can tell the Arab countries to shape up. I think that when the Europeans do such things it is referred to as diplomatic subtlety.
Despite a familial history of fondness for the oil-pumping, aristocratic, romantic Arabs, Bush has supported and relied on Israel like no previous American president. Especially post-9/11 -- he understands that we are now fighting a war Israel has been engaged in since before 1948, and he holds no brief with the hypocritical anti-Semitic anti-Israelism of so many of the world's ruling classes. |