What will Pat Robinson Say George?

Yesterday, bush and Blair met for photo opportunitys, and high-minded rhetoric, about solving the Isreali Palestinian problem in just four years. Prominent was the discussion of a Palestinian state.

US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair have said "a new opportunity" has emerged to forge a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Hours after Yasser Arafat was buried in Ramallah, Mr Bush said the setting up of an independent Palestinian state was possible within the next four years.

I suspect that this is as likely to happen as the trip to "Mars" that george floated as a trial ballon just under a year ago. The inner cynic finds this likely to be some meat tossed out to shore up Blairs falling political fortunes. One wonders the greeting Blair got from dubby considering he had stated a preference for a Kerry victory. I imagine that after tony was forced to lay his lips on georges ass, they made up. dubby needs Tony, to maintain the veneer of coalition.

He reaffirmed his view that the future of the Middle East is "two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security".

But he said it was up to the Palestinians to show their commitment to peace, to work towards democratic reforms and to fight terror.

"If you want to be helped, here's what we're willing to do," the president said. "If you choose not to be helped, there's nothing we can do."

Let's see if I can translate this. "If you want to be helped, you can have this shit on a stick. If you "choose" not to be helped, you can eat your shit off the ground. More importantly for bush, is how these statements are likely to put fundy knickers in a twist. During a visit to Isreal in early October, Pat Robertson delivered this shot across the bow:

Influential American evangelist Pat Robertson said Monday that Evangelical Christians feel so deeply about Jerusalem, that if President George W. Bush were to "touch" Jerusalem, Evangelicals would abandon their traditional Republican leanings and form a third party.

"The President has backed away from [the road map] but if he were to touch Jerusalem, he'd lose all evangelical support," Robertson said. "Evangelicals would form a third party" because, though people "don't know about" Gaza, Jerusalem is an entirely different matter.
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Robertson urged that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) be abolished, given what he called the organization's active role in the "perpetuation" of the Palestinian refugee problem. He warned that a Palestinian state would become "a constant source of irritation" that would "endanger the territorial integrity" of Israel.

"A Palestinian state with full sovereignty would be a launching ground for various types of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction," the former presidential candidate said.

Whether Tiptoeing through the Tulips, with fundy coddling code, or playing the evangelicals like a cynical Stradivarious, bush has to keep the fundies on the reservation and hope they do not let slip the dogs of war, meanwhile back to the Bees, leaders of the coalition of the thrilling.

But the BBC's Justin Webb, in Washington, notes that President Bush said nothing that he cannot later walk away from. Despite sounding optimistic, the president remains neither hostile nor committed to a peace process.

The president did not commit himself to an international peace conference on the issue and failed to embrace calls to appoint a special envoy to the Middle East.

He did not give a timetable for achieving a Palestinian state.

But he said he intended "to use the next four years to spend the [political] capital of the United States on such a state".

Aha, I thought I smelled another mobilization of the "Empty-Promise Keepers", as is the case if you carefully parse the language of any sheech he gives (Mars anyone?). One hopes the dominionists have their updated codebooks handy, or at least their fundy de-coder rings. Speaking of Dominion, Pat lets us know what the conflict in the middle east is really about and issues a warning.

"I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews and give East Jerusalem to [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Yasser Arafat. I see that as Satan's plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the Lord," said Robertson, a Christian broadcaster.

In two Jerusalem appearances, Robertson Sunday praised Israel as part of God's plan and criticized Arab countries and some Muslims, saying their hopes to include Israeli-controlled land in a Palestinian state are part of "Satan's plan."

Robertson, who has made critical statements of Islam in the past, called Israel's Arab neighbors "a sea of dictatorial regimes."

He said he "sends notice" to Osama bin Laden, Arafat and Palestinian militant groups that "you will not frustrate God's plan" to have Jews rule the Holy Land until the Second Coming of Jesus.

Only God should decide if Israel should relinquish control of the lands it captured in the 1967 war, including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem, Robertson said, in a reference to Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza next year.

"God says, 'I'm going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza Strip,'" Robertson said. "'It's my land and keep your hands off it.'"

Wow, God is in the Real Estate business now? What Pat did not say was that before all this socond coming activitude, the dome on the rock has to be destroyed so that the temple of Abraham can be rebuilt and a throne installed, then Jesus can come down, gather the faithful and bring them home to daddy. Back to the Freedon Fightin' duo, BatshitCrazyman and Blair:

"As those elections draw near, the desperation of the killers will grow and the violence could escalate," Mr Bush added.

"Success of democracy in Iraq will be a crushing blow to the forces of terror and the terrorists know it."
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"We are the pillars of the free world. We face the same threats and share the same belief in freedom and the rights of every individual," he said.

Mr Blair spoke of a "tremendous desire and willingness" among European nations to ensure the transatlantic alliance, strained over the Iraq war, regains its strength.

Obviously for american consumption, as the Europeans now have every right to despise this administration, pillars of the free world my ass