CNN loves these Bush bashing news items.
French President Jacques Chirac, clashing with U.S. foreign policy for a second day, says the isolation of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would hinder Middle East peacemaking.
| This is what's known as the "counterintuitive" approach. He's simply not big on empirical observation... |
Chirac said the U.S. policy was "not very prudent or compatible with a strategy of restoring peace" in the region.
| How do you restore what hasn't been? |
"People can have whatever opinion they like of President Arafat or any other president," Chirac said on the sidelines of the NATO summit. "But legitimacy cannot be contested if a different legitimacy is not proposed." He said it was normal for France to have contacts with the Palestinian leader who was "probably the only person who could impose compromise on the Palestinian people."
| Mad cow disease hits the French. |
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier left the NATO summit in Istanbul Tuesday for the Palestinian territories. He was scheduled to meet Arafat in his compound in Ramallah, where the veteran leader has been cowering holed up for around two years. Israel says Arafat is free to leave but would risk not being allowed back if he did so. "We have reiterated our policy that basically meeting Chairman Arafat is counterproductive as he continues to be an obstacle, a part of the problem and not part of the solution," an Israeli Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. "We recommend not to meet him, and most European foreign ministers have basically respected Israel’s policy. But every country is free and entitled to act as it sees fit," said the official. Barnier had been due to visit Israel after meeting Arafat but Israel scheduled a separate visit by the French minister for September instead.
| They shot up Jordan, shot up Lebanon, tried to shoot up Tunisia, and now they're on their second round of shooting up Israel up close and personal. And that's the best hope for peace? |
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo said Barnier’s visit reflected the view in Europe that the key to peace was driving the Joooos into the Sea an Israeli-Palestinian partnership -- not security measures. "The Israelis use the issue of Arafat and accuse him of being an obstacle (to peace) as a pretext to impose their unilateral solutions. The whole world understands this and the French foreign minister’s visit is a clear message to Israel," he said. |