Washington Post Death Spiral Watch
David Ignatius begins his column with an untruth:
Annapolis's Fading Hope: The Annapolis peace conference last November was a good moment for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...
No. It wasn't a good moment. There is no hope of progress on Israel-Palestine without (a) preparation, (b) credibility, (c) hard work, and (d) follow-through. There was no evidence that any of them were on order.
David Ignatius continues:
She seemed to be getting serious, finally, about using American diplomacy to push for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement whose basic parameters are understood by everyone...
Note the word "seemed"--but not to anyone but David Ignatius and his fellow fluffers. Others could see then what Ignatius only starts to see four months later:
Since then, that crucial ingredient -- American follow-through -- has been sadly lacking. As a result, the Annapolis process has languished... near collapse. Rice's critics have argued that this failure to follow up on big initiatives has been her biggest weakness in her years in Washington. She's running out of time to prove her critics wrong...
But she can't prove her critics wrong because they are right.
What's sad is that Rice knew precisely what was needed to make the process work.... The Israelis even agreed that the U.S. representative should decide whether the road map conditions had been met. President Bush named Air Force Lt. Gen. William Fraser III to this mediating post in January. But so far, his commission hasn't had a single three-way meeting.... Rice also appointed a distinguished personal representative, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, back in November.... Jones has made just one fact-finding trip so far.... Washington and Jerusalem stoutly insist that they will never negotiate with a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, they are quietly blessing an Egyptian effort to broker just such a cease-fire package. I'm sorry, but that is a lame strategy.... Rice keeps insisting that she is serious about achieving an Israeli-Palestinian breakthrough...
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps? How long will Ignatius continue to be "shocked, shocked" by the mendacious incompetence of the Bushies?
