Israel Rejects Iraq Study Group Proposals

[oberliner]

(CBS/AP) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday rejected a U.S. advisory group's conclusion that a concerted effort to resolve Israel's conflict with its neighbors will help stabilize the situation in Iraq, saying there is no connection between the two issues.

Olmert also rebuffed the group's recommendation that Israel open negotiations with Syria, but said Israelis want "with all our might" to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

The Iraq Study Group report, released Wednesday in Washington, calls for direct talks between Israel and its neighbors, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians and says resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict would improve conditions in Iraq.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/07/world/main2237127.shtml

[Jacobin]

1. good grief

we lost. get over it. don't like it? go invade them yourselves.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Perhaps they can outline how they'll handle Iraq and then they can do it.

We'd be happy to turn that shithole over to them. Considering how well they handled they latest excursion into Lebanon, Iraq should be a cake walk.

[hughee99]

3. So if we can just fix a problem that's been around...

for more than 50 years and has had many intelligent and hard working people trying to resolve it over that time, it will help us with a situation that we've had for the last 3 years that 1 idiot has been in charge of?

Is this basically the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group?

[newyorican]

5. One of the recomendations...

there are 79 of them in total.

It's a clear sign of how badly we have screwed the pooch.

[newyorican]

4. If I recall correctly...

the report is for the US Govt.

Now Israel may reject requests/demands from the US Govt., but that is a horse of a different color.

[The Magistrate]

6. Mr. Olmert Has A Point Here, Sir

Baker raised the topic of the Golan only as a part of his idea that regional talks with Syria and Iran may be of assistance in extricating the U.S. from Iraq with a somewhat less glaring shiner than we have already been tagged with. Among the problems with this proposal is that neither country has any particular reason to assist the United States in any way, and we have ourselves nothing particular to serve as a bribe to entice their co-operation. Syria wants the Golan back, and so pressure on Israel in this struck him as a possible enticement. But it is not in his gift, or that of the United States, and has no connection, either direct or appreciable, with the state of affairs in Iraq. In any case, the "regional talks" idea will prove as sterile as the rest of the recommendations in the paper he and his group has produced: they will not take place, and would be futile if they did.

[bemildred]

7. Indeed.

When you get to the point of hoping that your long declared enemies are going to help you out, having no real incentive to do so and every real incentive to keep you where you are, you are screwed.

[Joanne98]

8. Of course. Why did they even bother.