The Waste of Time at Annapolis

By Alan Caruba

The upcoming conference at Annapolis to secure an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is doomed from the git-go. None of the parties with the exception of that idiot Olmert are prepared to concede anything and even the Israeli people don't have that great a death wish...despite recent evidence otherwise as in Olmert's transfer of guns and other military gear to Abbas and his little band of Fatah murderers.

The Saudis are so afraid of even being there (they see themselves as the leaders of all the Arabs since they are home to Mecca and Medina) they won't even shake hands will the Israelis. What a bunch of craven cowards.

As to the others, the Egyptians and the Jordanians have long since signed off on peace treaties with the Israelis and neither wants any more military action (both got soundly whipped in 1967). So that leaves Hamas and Hezbollah, neither of which has any intention to make peace and accept Palestinian statehood.

Back when the British mandate over Palestine was lifted, the UN offered the Palestinians the status and territory as a separate state and they refused.

In every negotiation with them since they have refused.

What the Bush Administration hopes or expects to achieve with the Annapolis conference is beyond understanding. It surely is not peace because the Palestinians have never demonstrated any evidence of wanting to make peace with Israel, i.e., stop sending suicide bombers, drive-by shooters, and stop rocketing Israel.

And the Israelis will never relinquish control over Jerusalem to the descendents of goat herders whose religion didn't even exist 1,700 years ago.

About the only predictable thing that will occur is that the conference will be played out against the background noise of terror and rocket attacks on Israel.