Least clarifying clarification…. ever
Via Blake Hounshell at Passport, I see that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert felt compelled to issue a “clarification” following Nancy Pelosi’s visit with Bashir Assad. I don’t find it beyond the realm of possibility that Pelosi screwed up her message, but the clarification is kind of strange too: The Prime Minister emphasized that although Israel ...
Via Blake Hounshell at Passport, I see that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert felt compelled to issue a "clarification" following Nancy Pelosi's visit with Bashir Assad. I don't find it beyond the realm of possibility that Pelosi screwed up her message, but the clarification is kind of strange too: The Prime Minister emphasized that although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the axis of evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East. In order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbollah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran. The Prime Minister clarified that by these measures it would be determined whether Syria is sincere about attaining a genuine peace with Israel. What was communicated to the U.S. House speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel, as was communicated to other foreign leaders.Question to readers -- was there a point when Syria got officially added to the axis of evil category? Or, as Hounshell puts it, "I wasn't aware that 'axis of evil' had become a formal designation." Though I'm intrigued by the idea of the State Department issuing an Annual Report on Evil in the World ("The State Department found that Iran has become 30% more evil in the fiscal year 2006, but overall evil levels declined in most regions.")
Via Blake Hounshell at Passport, I see that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert felt compelled to issue a “clarification” following Nancy Pelosi’s visit with Bashir Assad. I don’t find it beyond the realm of possibility that Pelosi screwed up her message, but the clarification is kind of strange too:
The Prime Minister emphasized that although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the axis of evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East. In order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbollah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran. The Prime Minister clarified that by these measures it would be determined whether Syria is sincere about attaining a genuine peace with Israel. What was communicated to the U.S. House speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel, as was communicated to other foreign leaders.
Question to readers — was there a point when Syria got officially added to the axis of evil category? Or, as Hounshell puts it, “I wasn’t aware that ‘axis of evil’ had become a formal designation.” Though I’m intrigued by the idea of the State Department issuing an Annual Report on Evil in the World (“The State Department found that Iran has become 30% more evil in the fiscal year 2006, but overall evil levels declined in most regions.”)
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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