"Foreign Policy" Magazine is CRAP

I've noticed that "Foreign Policy" magazine always attempts to seperate the Palestine/Israel problem from the other problems afflicting the Middle East. This, as far as I am concerned, is tantamount to wanting to cure a patient from, say, recurrent headaches and ulcers while insisting that these symptoms are seperate from the cancerous tumour in their brain.

Anyway, I wanted to publish a letter to the editor I just sent to FP.

Dear Sirs,

It saddens me that publications such as yours insist on clinging to concepts about the Middle East that are mere wishful thinking rather than facing the realities on the ground. What I am referring to is your article "Think again: Middle Eastern democracy" found on the following link : http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2705&popup_delayed=1

Unfortunately you are doing your readers a disservice when you cling to the simplistic notion that democracy in the Middle East and the resolution of the Israeli Palestinian conflict are not interlinked. As the recent rise of Hamas to power through the ballot box demonstrates, the US and its allies within and without the region will make it extremely hard for any democratically elected party that is overtly hostile to Israel to rule, effectively subverting the democratic process. The ONLY solution to this is a reasonably just solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict that will contribute towards marginalizing the extremist and anti-Israeli voices and rob them of the votes they can so handily muster today if democratic elections were to be held at all.

While the Middle East is rife with problems other than the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, there is now, thankfully, increasing awareness throughout the world that this conflict is a central issue that cannot be left alone. To quote a recent article in the Economist (Nov 19th, 2005): "this conlict poisons the whole world, not just the protagonists". Quite right.

Great article by Pat Buchanan

I find it very interesting when American Conservative pundits call it as it really is in Israel/Palestine. More interesting still is when they portray Bush as a hapless president. Check out conservative Patrick Buchanan's article entitled "Steering into a Third Intifada" on the following link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13193.htm

Buchanan is a conservative pundit who had previously run for president. Although squarely a conservative who favored Bush over Kerry, he is a respectable commentator in conservative circles despite his propensity to have views that are not always in line with the conservative 'establishment'.

A quick quote from the article: "What is the Bush plan to advance our interests in the Middle East? There is none. For five years, the Bush policy has been to sign off on whatever Sharon put in front of him. And now that Bush is weak, he is not going to pick a fight he cannot win and, in candor, he does not want."