Middle East: Invisible peace talk

Even as we console ourselves with the fact that the Bush presidency is entering its twilight months, we can't help but wish, as artist/political activist Henry Rollins said, that President Bush be allowed to speak only on closed-circuit television. That way, only the U.S. would be privy to his embarrassing speeches.

Sad to say, Bush travels and speaks before international audiences, as he did this week in Israel. On hand to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country, he gave a 20-minute speech before the Parliament on how much the U.S. loves Israel. While he pays much lip service to brokering a peace treaty between Palestinians and the Israeli state, Bush mentioned Palestinians once during the entire speech. How's that for a two-state solution?

He didn't say much about how Israel's security can be attained while the party trying to broker peace doesn't even acknowledge the ruling Palestinian party. And in one of his signature moves -- favoring hyperbole over diplomacy -- Bush also compared talks with Iran to the "appeasement" of the Nazis in 1939. Funny. He can reach back 69 years for appeasement, but can't go back 55 to when the U.S. helped overthrow Iran's democratic state.

Oh well -- less than 250 days to go.