Anticipating a "surprise visit" on Shabbes.

Doubtful the Israel portion of her trip will be of substance.

In all likelihood, she's there to make up for the legislation she advocates to curtail the Iraq war--something the Olmert government has openly stated its against.

Anyone know what she's up to? I just heard about the Syria visit and I am curious. She must have some sort of agenda. Is it about the Golan heights? What's up?

Now, if we only had a Congress that was a very good friend of Americans! Remember us?

Regardless of what she is able to achieve without presidential authority - she can't do more harm to the cause of peace than Bush has in the region.

J. McCutchen

I am SO proud of my Congresswoman

kent roberts,ship wm kristol`s ass and bob kagan to israel,maybe they could use their principles.

Nancy has taken Representative Keith Ellison along with the bi-partisian delegation, and I suppose it is only in his home district that we are getting reports back regarding his meetings and plans for meetings on this trip. But just as JFK was the man who brought Jackie to Paris, Nancy is the stylish grandma who brought Keith Ellison to the Palestinians, to Syria, and wherever else they are going.

I bet Virgil Goode is spitting wooden kittens.

On March 31, 2007 - 5:27am cpousnret said:

kent roberts,ship wm kristol`s ass and bob kagan to israel,maybe they could use their principles.

I saw the 'always wrong on Iraq' William Kristol say on Meet the Press; "I want to see a robust foreign policy..."

Chickenhawks United.

The inclusion of Ellison on the trip sends a clear message - even if the highly-pro-Israel Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is also traveling with her. Here's what Ellison had to say:

Ellison said he hoped to visit the compound above the Western Wall known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims. The compound, the site of the biblical temples as well as the third-holiest site in Islam, is one of the main points of friction between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.

"I haven't seen it yet, but I hope to, I'm really looking forward to it," Ellison said of the compound, which is also home to the Dome of Rock shrine.

Ellison said his presence - as a Muslim - on the trip sent a message to Israelis and Palestinians that people can come together.

"Reconciliation is possible," he said

The article that contained his remarks above also had this to say:

Pelosi's repeat trip to the Middle East indicates she has no intention of letting the White House have the sole province on foreign policy. She has already forced legislation through the House that would order all combat troops out of Iraq by September 2008, a measure that resembles a similar measure approved by the Democratic-run Senate.

The group of U.S. legislators will be meeting with Abbas tomorrow, which is also significant.

Perhaps Pelosi has a different game plan in mind than the Bush approach. By doing virtually nothing for years, he allowed Israel to create facts on the ground that have seriously impeded the peace effort. I'm waiting to hear what Pelosi says to the Knesset before getting too excited though. It's appeared to me that virtually all of Congress has been too willing to take a position that tilts significantly toward Israel, rather than employing an evenhanded approach.

Know your enemy well, for in the end that is who you become. ~~Old Chinese Proverb

Olmert and center-right Israeli public opinion are intensifying or renewing their denial about their situation and its resolution. Maybe it will take Netanyahu to champion the Jewish side of the denialism and thereby expose it fully to the reality it fails against. But the mutual destruction of Jews and Palestinians that will result...I'd rather not even begin to imagine.

Pelosi's visit, ironically, is about American Gentile and American Jewish public opinion shifting markedly the other way: to increasing acceptance and breaking down denial of what is necessary.

The denial, which some who post here champion to various degrees, is about the long term viability and necessity of tribally Jewish sovereignty in I/P. Long term realities say it must inevitably decline, be given up incrementally. (Palestinian claims must- and will- decline likewise.)

Look at the Sunday News of the Week section in The Times.  The lead story is about the Bushies, despite having reviled Clinton, now adopting its diplomacy.  You'd never know that we're reliant on Pelosi to do what the president used to do. This is why the media spin still kills us and still makes me want to cry. 

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

SanPasqualCA,

The denial, which some who post here champion to various degrees, is about the long term viability and necessity of tribally Jewish sovereignty in I/P. Long term realities say it must inevitably decline, be given up incrementally. (Palestinian claims must- and will- decline likewise.)

Jews are in no denial about "tribally Jewish sovereignty" in Israel.  The reality of Jewish national rights in Israel is consistent with the dominant culture of Arab identity politics in the region -- check out the 4th bullet point under "On the Arab-Israeli Conflict" in the Lebanese Daily Star's excerpts from the Arab League communique from the Riyadh summit,

Act diligently to protect the Arab identity ... and strengthen belonging to it in the hearts and minds of children, adolescents and young men and women, since Arabism is not a racist or ethnic concept, rather it is a unified cultural identity, with the Arabic language as its means of expression.

I submit likewise that Zionism (Jewish national liberation) is not a racist concept as it is a unified cultural identity, with the Hebrew language as its means of expression.  Further, Jewish and Arab national rights are not mutually exclusive in former British-Palestine.

Pelosi talking at the Knesset according to Haartz.com:

"On Sunday night, Pelosi spoke at a dinner for in the Knesset building, and told lawmakers that America remains strongly behind their country.

"Americans have many political differences, but we stand united with Israel now and always," she said.

Her speech was uniformly supportive of Israel, and she received a standing ovation at the end.

She said that Iran must not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and called for the disarming of Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel last summer. She also expressed fears that instability in Iraq will encourage Israel and America's enemies."

[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/844645.html]

Daniel A. Greenbaum

J. McCutchen

Israel vs. Bush & the Neoconservatives on Syria - Cole

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Damascus makes perfect sense as domestic US politics. The Democratic Party is developing its own foreign policy, different from that of Bush, which involves negotiating with Middle Eastern actors rather than just attempting to isolate them, call them evil, and if possible overthrow them. In the post-Iraq era (that one is all over with but the shouting, folks), such a policy of (tough) negotiating makes sense for the US, even if Bush refuses to see it. There is a lot he cannot see.
But Pelosi's trip doesn't make so much sense on the surface if one stops to think how close the top Democratic leadership is to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which in turn is close to government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. AIPAC had earlier pushed for isolating Syria.
But here we have Tom Lantos, among the staunchest partisans of Israel in Congress, expressing satisfaction with Pelosi going off to Damascus. And, Pelosi is carrying a message to Bashar al-Asad from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Yet the trip is being denounced by Bush and the Neoconservatives around him, including Jewish intellectuals with deep ties to the Israel lobby.
So what is going on here, really....