The Party's Over - Long Live the Tea...Four o-clock yesterday in suburban Seattle and urban Detroit, instead of passing the cucumber sandwiches, Americans, "red in tooth and claw" opened fire on one another...Again. The Pros: Violence is a boon to the gene pool in many cases. Cons: Ammunition hoarding. It makes a person wish the British had won.
Al Jazeera journalist, Amjad Atallah broke a story yesterday that serves to confirm what the average Palestinian has know about - and raged at – for years: Their own negotiators have been selling them short. The only ‘news’ about it is the cold clear evidence. Al Jazeera English edition has this transparency unit, y’see. AJE wiki-washed that smarmy smile off the face of mid-east peace talks. Over 16 hundred documents apparently from the Palestinian negotiating support unit detail meeting after meeting of Israeli, Palestinian, and U.S. officials over a decade. The first batch of revelations show that the Palestinian negotiators were willing to concede to the ethnic partition of Jerusalem and to consider suspending resolution of the sovereignty over Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. There are also documents that show that the Palestinians were prepared to accept continued Israeli security control over the future Palestinian state. Worse still the documents show a level of deference and desperation toward the Israeli negotiators, especially Tzipi Livni, that stands in stark contrast to the public statements of Palestinian officials.
And after a thorough investigation of itself, Israel found the IDF innocent of any and all wrong-doing even - and especially! - in cases where they didn't do anything. Israel finds that the Mavi Marmora was at the time of the incident which did not take place, in fact cruising the Gulf of Mexico under the Somali flag, renting out beach blankets to pirates. When asked about Ankara's response to the results of the inquery, Tzipi Livni, chewing thoughtfully on the leg of a small Palestinian child, conceded that "you can't have turkey without the stuffing."
And I say, "One lump or two?"
- KBOO