U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi arrives in Israel for visit

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U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arrived in Israel on Friday and planned to visit Syria, a country the Bush administration has shunned, on her second fact-finding trip to the Middle East since she took over in January.

Among those in her delegation are Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress.

Pelosi's repeat trip to the Middle East indicates she has no intention of letting the White House have the sole province on foreign policy. She has already forced legislation through the House that would order all combat troops out of Iraq by September 2008, a measure that resembles a similar measure approved by the Democratic-run Senate.

The Bush administration has mostly refused to engage Syria diplomatically because of its ties to terrorist networks. U.S. officials held their first direct, high-level contact with Syrian representatives in years this month when they met with officials from several Middle East countries in Baghdad to discuss Iraq.

Haaretz

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Rep. Ellison made good on his promise.

Impressive. It is sad to be happy when a politician actually keeps a promise made on the campaign trail!

[ORDagnabbit]

2. nice...lets visit the nuclear powered apartheid regime armed with us taxpayer dollars. yay.

[bemildred]

3. LOL.

:popcorn::popcorn:

[Behind the Aegis]

5. What a stupid remark.

:eyes:

[still_one]

7. Agreed. As far as posts in this forum are concerned it is not to establish a dialog

and look for solutions, but instead to direct as much venom as possible toward one side

[Purveyor]

6. {{{chuckle}}} n/t

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4. 'Dancing with a corpse'

He gets around to talking about Ms Pelosi farther down.

By Shmuel Rosner

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It's almost Passover eve, and with the theme of four (questions, brothers, cups of wine, etc.) in mind, the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament has produced better news than what was generated by the "Arab Quartet." Furthermore, Rice's achievements were modest; from the outset no one pinned exaggerated hopes on her mission. Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland quoted an "admirer" of Rice as saying, to memorable effect: "Condi is doing everything she can. But she is dancing with a corpse that just keeps flopping over in another direction every time she tries to move it."

That is exactly what happened to her with Olmert. In the eyes of many, he too is a type of political corpse. Rice could not help but discern the change in his approach, the enthusiasm that has now cooled. The Americans came with a plan, but when they heard Olmert they realized that they would have to modify it. Even if they would have preferred that he behave differently, his interlocutors did not find it difficult to understand his reasons - political distress, but also, and no less serious, obstacles on the ground. How can he talk with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) about a political horizon before the latter brings about the return home of Gilad Shalit, the abducted soldier?

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Rice and President George Bush, it turns out, are undergoing a process of becoming more pragmatic, but their basic beliefs have not changed: Without democratization, they believe, the Middle East will know no peace. In any event, the foundation on which American policy is now resting - unification of a front of moderates in the face of the forces of darkness that are rocking the Middle East - looked very rickety this week. It's convincing on paper, but the concrete results are dubious. The Egyptians are angry, the Saudis are conducting an independent policy, the Jordanians are distancing themselves, and the Lebanese are trembling.

If this is the forecast, it's no wonder the Iranians are guffawing. Last week they poured more oil on troubled waters by abducting sailors of the Royal Navy. In the game of chicken that Iran is playing with the West, the first to get scared were Iran's Arab neighbors. The Saudi monarch informed the Americans that he would not be visiting Washington mid-month, as had been scheduled. They are having trouble deciphering this move, as is Israel. The television broadcasts from the summit were the most credible source of information for all those people holding out hopes that something good is happening to the Arab League. The assessments of statesmen concerning the likely outcome in Riyadh was more a reflection of their character and desires than it was of any hard information that they are harboring.

Haaretz