Is Bush’s embrace of Palestinian leader “strange”?

An e-mail to Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters:

Ed,

You wrote

“President Bush offered a strange endorsement to the beleaguered Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, …”

“Strange”? No, Ed, not strange at all, but utterly consistent with his policy in Israel since summer 2003, when he totally betrayed his statement of June 2002 that the U.S. would give no further assistance to the cause of Palestinian statehood until the Palestinians had gotten rid of their terrorist apparatus and culture.

By calling it “strange,” you keep alive the illusion that Bush’s embrace of the terrorist Palestinian cause is some odd, incomprehensible exception from what is otherwise a wise, good, anti-terrorist policy.

With the Harriet Miers nomination, many conservatives have finally realized, belatedly but with stunning clarity, that Bush is not a conservative on domestic issues, while they still hold out the belief that he’s a conservative on foreign issues. The fact is that he is liberal on foreign issues. Yes, he’s a different kind of liberal from the anti-war left, which is why the left hates him, but he’s still a liberal. Perhaps some day Bush’s remaining champions (whose numbers are deservedly shrinking), will understand this.

Best Regards,
Lawrence Auster

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 22, 2005 03:15 PM | Send