Peace frog
Speaker of the House Nancy Peolsi went to the Middle East because, well, she felt compelled to follow
the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which recommended the United States launch a diplomatic initiative with Syria.
Unfortunately, she's not "the United States"; the President of the United States is constitutionally "the United States."
But even the President leaves diplomacy to diplomats. Nancy Pelosi has proved she's not diplomat. Because one thing you don't want to do when you engage in "shuttle" diplomacy is forget the message you got from one party and get it wrong when you tell the second party.
Such is what happened with the well-coiffed Speaker. See, first she visited Israel, the she met with Israel's enemy, Syria. Leaping like a peace frog from one to the other. The result?
Headline in the EuroNews
Pelosi tells Syria Israel is ready to talk peace
Headline in the LA Times
Syria, Israel may resume peace talks
But all is not so rosy
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on a visit to Syria opposed by the White House, said on Wednesday President Bashar al-Assad was ready to hold peace talks with Israel....
"(Our) meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from prime minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well," Pelosi told reporters after talks with Assad.
Unfortunately, the Speaker mis-spoke
An Israeli government official said that was not the message Olmert had asked Pelosi earlier this week to convey to Assad, who seeks the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The prime minister said Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups," the official said, in reference to Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
"Comments (Olmert) made to the speaker of the House did not represent any change in a policy Israel has expressed to all international figures dealing with the (Syrian) issue," a statement from Olmert's office said.
It's too bad too, Europe and the LA Times were so hoping that she would prove Bush wrong.
The Speaker was eloquent in stating the hopes of pacifists while blindly misstating the situation
"We came in friendship, hope and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters after her talks with Mr. Assad.
But Speaker Pelosi couldn't keep a simple message in her head:
Israel will negotiate with Syria when Syria is no longer a terrorist-supporting state trying to kill Israel.
She just forgot about the terrorist part.
Which pretty much summarizes the whole problem with the Democratic leadership in Washington.
