Abbas, left, and CheneyOn Sunday, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to discuss the recent military clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants. There, Cheney conceded that success in peace would require “painful concessions” on both ends, and that the U.S. was committed to an independent Palestinian state.
Abbas thanked Cheney for his show of support and proceeded to lash out at Israeli’s settlement and checkpoint policies, blaming them in part for the lack of peace and security in the West Bank region. Cheney (“The Sage,” or “Papa,” as Americans affectionately refer to him) claimed that “the future belongs to the advocates of peace and reconciliation.”
The meeting, held on Easter Sunday, was prefaced by a visit to a tiny chapel by Vice President Cheney, where the crowd prayed to a seemingly absent god and sang Amazing Grace.
Just as in my last article, the content above seems irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Is this a purely political showing-of-face / shaking of hands, or is this a “real” meeting driven by a meeting’s definitive motivations: to communicate, to plan, and to share genuine information and advice for the benefit of all parties involved?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/23/cheney.mideast.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText-Associated Press
No comments:
Post a Comment