Maine Owl

What they've been up to: non-denial denial


July 28, 2006 in Rome: Not enough Lebanese were dead; Killing & Rice come together in Gaza this year too while she can't say "ceasefire"

Vanity Fair has really stung 'em. The U.S. policy of propping up Fatah thugs against an enemy, yet democratically-elected Hamas government in Palestine has been exposed in a way it hasn't been until now. I like the way Angry Arab has been posting lines from the piece as he reads them. (Scroll through March 4 and March 3 from HERE.)

Daily Press Briefing
Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman - Washington, DC -March 4, 2008

The story alleges that there was some kind of secret plot on the part of the U.S. Government to create a internal conflict within the Palestinians, specifically an armed conflict. That’s absurd. That’s ridiculous. I said this morning that I think Vanity Fair should stick to arty photos of celebrities since clearly, at least in this instance, their efforts at serious journalism leave something lacking.

The official reaction is that something is "absurd," "ridiculous," or, as Secretary Rice herself put it (below the fold), "ludicrous." No, it wasn't exactly "secret," or even a "plot." The Contra-style armament plan was done. It was a straightforward policy to arm favored thugs and run a divide-and-conquer playbook. And sure, we can accept it was ludicrous.

It's hard to even imagine that Condoleezza Rice can wield any credibility. Her biggest stock in trade is to go around pointing at the terrorists Israeli hardliners want her to name. It's all one-way. Just as in July 2006, while she is "pressing for an end to the violence" she simply cannot utter the words that instantly would stop the most powerful purveyor of violence, which is Israel, and the very-much-less-destructive rocket attacks as well: "The United States declares that there must be a CEASEFIRE on BOTH sides." But while she "presses," the violence continues so Israel can accomplish its threats to "wipe out" Gaza neighborhoods, because, you know, Hamas are just dirt without the Israeli "right to self-defense."

Rice, below in full bloom:

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) Dr. Rice, no, we have not seen tangible results on the ground in view of the continuous assault by Israel. The second part of the question: Were the American efforts in terms of the end of aggression and both West Bank and Gaza Strip has reached?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we’ve been very active over the last several days in pressing for an end to the violence. We believe very strongly that Hamas, in its activities that began with the illegal coup against established Palestinian institutions in Gaza, has created conditions that have made it very difficult, including conditions that have resulted in the launching of rocket attacks against Israeli citizens in their own cities.

We have said and I have said to the Israelis that the United States, of course, understands the right of Israel to defend itself, but that Israel needs to be very cognizant of the effects of its operations on innocent people, to spare innocent life, and to do everything possible to prevent humanitarian crises in Gaza. And so we’ve been very active in putting that message out. I am hopeful, as the President has asked and has very much supported and wanted to move forward, that there will be the return of humanitarian convoys into Gaza because we don’t want people to suffer. And so those have been some of the messages that the United States has been issuing and we’ve been in very constant contact with the parties and of course, I stopped in Egypt this morning for precisely that reason.

As to the negotiations, we hear that they are positive. I, frankly, don’t expect that the negotiators are going to call a press conference every day to tell us how they’re going. I think it’s a good thing that they’re not doing that and that quiet negotiations are most often the best negotiations. And so I know that there is great will to try and get to a solution by the end of the year and there will be ups and downs in those negotiations. These are difficult issues. They would have been resolved before, had they been easy issues. But I do believe that through engagement and constant engagement on the core issues, that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, who are quite capable and quite senior figures in their own right, Abu Allah and Tzipi Livni, will be able to bring about an agreement.

QUESTION [in Cairo]: I have a question or both of you. Mr. Minister, did you get any notion from the Americans that they are supporting your proposal of ceasefire and – for Gaza? And Madame Secretary, you spoke about easing the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Does it mean that the Israeli blockade went too far?

FOREIGN MINISTER GHEIT: May I? I think we agree, both of us, that there has to be a kind of cessation of hostilities. No missiles are to be fired on the Israelis, but the Israelis also are required not to respond in the manner that they have been responding over the last few days. It is a must that we have that kind of period of quiet and order to open the way for an objective pursuit of negotiations between the authority and the Israeli Government.

SECRETARY RICE: Let me put it the following way. It’s very clear what needs to happen. The rocket attacks against innocent Israelis in their cities, now Sderot and also Ashkelon, it needs to stop. This can’t go on. No Israeli government can tolerate that. And Israel will exercise its right to defense.

I have said to the Israelis, both privately and publicly, that when they are engaged in that effort at defense or engaged in defending themselves, they need to be aware of the effects of those operations on innocent people. They need to be aware of the effects of those operations on the next day and what can happen the next day. And so there does need to be a sense of what the effects of those operations are. This is not to say that Israelis are not going to defend their people. There needs to be a stop to the rockets and there needs to be an awareness of what is happening to innocent civilians and an effort to prevent innocent people from being harmed.

Now, there also needs to be an active peace process, and that active peace process is going to have to withstand efforts by rejectionists to keep peace from being made. The people who are firing rockets and causing chaos don’t want peace, and it will be a gift to them if no Palestinian state is established because they can continue to sow chaos. That’s what extremists do: They sow chaos, they sow instability; that is what Hamas is doing. And so it is extremely important that all of those steps be followed. And as I said, it will help too if there is attention to the other pillars of Annapolis, the conditions on the ground and the roadmap obligations.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

SECRETARY RICE: I’ve made clear before we’re very concerned about the humanitarian situation. We’ve talked to the Israelis about the humanitarian situation. We are working, for instance, on making certain that certain humanitarian convoys can get in to Gaza. I think that’s extremely important.

QUESTION: Yes, I have two questions for both of you. Mr. Foreign Minister, do you think the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas has been detrimental to the Annapolis peace conference, and so now it’s the time to start some sort of dialogue with them?

And for Madame Secretary, Vanity Fair just published a really long article based on U.S. documents, saying that the U.S. Government pressed Mahmoud Abbas to confront Hamas in an arms struggle which the article says led actually to the Hamas takeover of Gaza. Was this indeed the policy of the Bush Administration at the time? And if so, do you think it backfired?

FOREIGN MINISTER GHEIT: If I may respond to the question, we have to admit Hamas is part of the Palestinian equation and Hamas will have to be tackled with, meaning in a certain point in time down the road as we make progress and the authority and the Israelis are making progress when it comes to political negotiations, it will be a must that Hamas will have to be convinced to come onboard. If they would mend their ways and if that resort to violence and to military action, if it comes to an end, then that would be opening the way for Hamas to join.

But I have also to refer to the unequal use of force. The Israelis are exaggerating in their military reaction for -- to whatever that is happening on the Palestinian side and Gaza, and we have to control that situation in order to open the way for the political process to proceed.

SECRETARY RICE: First of all, Glenn, let me say a word about the Hamas situation. We’ve always said that we hope that the establishment of a Palestinian state, an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to establish a state, will be a unifying factor for all Palestinians. But then people are going to have to make their choice: Are they prepared to renounce violence? Are they prepared to live in peace and security side by side with Israel? Are they prepared to live up to the obligations that Palestinian leaders have taken for more than a decade now? Those are the questions before Hamas. This isn’t a question about the United States approaching Hamas. This is a question about what Hamas intends and is prepared to do in terms of the very clear international standards that it has not met.

Now, as to a Vanity Fair article that I have not read, I’m not going to comment on the article. I will say the following: The United States has been very clear about its desire to help in an international effort to improve the security capabilities of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority is headed by Mahmoud Abbas; and when Mahmoud Abbas has had security chiefs with whom he -- in whom he’s vested authority, the United States has dealt with those security chiefs. Now, the Hamas -- the idea that somehow Hamas has used as an excuse American and international assistance -- because it is not only American assistance -- to the Palestinian Authority to do what Hamas has always done, which is to sow chaos, I think is, on the face of it, fairly ludicrous.

But let me just go back to the point about what the United States is doing. It is very clear that Hamas is being armed and it’s very clear that they’re being armed, in part, by the Iranians. So if the answer is that Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces, that’s not a very good situation. And I expect therefore that you’re going to continue to see support for the international community, the United States among them, working with the regional states and working with the Palestinians to establish a professional and capable Palestinian security force that can be part of the solution, that can defend a new Palestinian state, that can defend against terrorism, but most importantly that can defend its own people. Because the kind of lawlessness that Palestinians have had to endure in their own homes, in their own streets, in their own neighborhoods, is a concern to the United States, which is why we have been supporting the efforts of Salam Fayyad, for instance, to improve the security situation in Nablus by the deployment of Palestinian security forces there. So that’s what we’re doing, and I can’t comment on an article that I have not read.