Decent Lives?
News reports say Secretary of State Rice was surprised (and “not pleased,” according to spokesman Sean McCormack) to find that Israel denied exit from Gaza to seven Palestinians the United States selected for Fulbright scholarships. “If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine or, frankly, since I believe the two-state solution is so important to Israelis and Palestinians, to the people of that region who want to have decent lives,” she said.
News reports say Secretary of State Rice was surprised (and “not pleased,” according to spokesman Sean McCormack) to find that Israel denied exit from Gaza to seven Palestinians the United States selected for Fulbright scholarships. “If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine or, frankly, since I believe the two-state solution is so important to Israelis and Palestinians, to the people of that region who want to have decent lives,” she said.
John Branchizio, Mark Parson and John Martin Linde wanted decent lives, too, Madame Secretary.
The three young Americans were killed in a 2003 car bombing in Gaza as they accompanied an American diplomat to interview potential Fulbright scholars. The State Department offered a lame reward, banned travel to Gaza by U.S. officials and temporarily suspended funding for two water projects. An FBI investigation went nowhere, possibly because, according to the Israel Law Center, the Palestinian commander investigating the bombing – Col. Rashid Abu Shabak – was probably the man who planned it.
According to Israeli intelligence, Abu Shabak masterminded the attack in which two teachers were killed and three children lost parts of their legs from a bomb under a school bus among other terror activities including his reputation among Palestinians as a “collaborator hunter” – See JINSA Reports #203, 204 and 276). Abu Shabak was removed from the terror list in 2005 to “strengthen Abu Mazen,” and Abu Mazen made him chief of the General Security Service. (Are those the guys Gen. Dayton is training?)
If the State Department wants to say, “Bygones are bygones,” and if they don’t really care about justice for three young Americans working for the State Department, Dr. Rice should say, “Bygones are bygones and we don’t care.” At least we would know what we’re dealing with – and so would people who enter State Department service. Note that it took more than 23 years for the Department to acknowledge that Yasser Arafat was directly responsible for the assassination of American diplomats Cleo Noel and Curtis Moore, and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid. (See JINSA Report #630)
Just to round out the story: The State Department now admits it didn’t tell Israel that the request for seven young Palestinian men to travel abroad was that they had been selected for American scholarships. U.S. officials said Israel should have anyhow have recognized that they were a “special case.” Really? Young Palestinian men have been going to Iran from Gaza for advanced rocket/missile training. Israeli security concerns were entirely valid and there is no excuse for the State Department’s (deliberate?) omission.
And finally, why Gaza? U.S. policy has been to isolate the Hamas government while investing its energies in Abu Mazen’s West Bank. It is not a good policy, but if the goal is to “strengthen Abu Mazen,” why allow Hamas to take credit for the restoration of Fulbright scholarships and a clear weakening of the American policy of isolation? Hamas wins and both Israel and Abu Mazen lose when the Secretary pick a stupid fight with her presumed allies on behalf of her announced enemies.