Israeli Vote Also Deals a Blow to U.S. Policy

[Tellurian]

..I haven't seen article today...if a dupe please freeze.

WASHINGTON — In rejecting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Israel's Likud Party dealt a blow Sunday to President Bush's Middle East policy that he could ill afford after a month of setbacks.

Buffeted by the diplomatic and political fallout of mounting casualties in Iraq and the release of photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused in a Baghdad prison now run by U.S. troops, Bush badly needed some good news from the region as he headed into a period of Middle East diplomacy.

Administration officials had hoped that Bush's strong public backing for Sharon's plan — which sparked outrage in the Arab world — would help the prime minister clinch the vote. Instead, Likud members turned their backs on their leader and on Bush, despite Sharon's warnings that U.S.-Israeli relations could be damaged if the plan was rejected.

said Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland scholar and senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution, a moderate Washington think tank.

The Arab world will blame the Bush administration, Telhami said, for backing a policy that was defeated and for approving provisions that will probably stand even if Sharon is unable to implement his withdrawal plan.

"If there is a big loser in all this, it is the Bush administration, more than Sharon, in a way," Telhami said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=5&u=/latimests/20040503/ts_latimes/israelivotealsodealsablowtouspolicy

[Tellurian]

1. Not A Word of this on the news...

Whats going on?

[TcAaNnSaTdAiAaFnL]

2. "Not A Word of this on the news..."

Not surprising, sounds like business as usual to me...

[Tellurian]

3. Hey, Everybody...This is GOOD News...

At least give it a kick, a kick for Bush!