Pelosi and Assad Find Common Ground

Today was the main act of Nancy Pelosi's Terror-palooza Tour. She met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -- 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.

But her remark that Israel was prepared to negotiate with Damascus prompted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office to underline the Jewish state's preconditions for such talks.

Democrat Pelosi is the most senior U.S. official to visit Syria in more than two years. The White House called her trip to Damascus a bad idea and Republican President George W. Bush said it sent mixed signals to Syria.

"We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president (Assad) that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations (for) peace with Israel," Pelosi said.

"(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.

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.

With all due respect to Madame Pelosi, she has revealed an astounding degree of idiocy and ineptitude.

Did she think that she could run over to Syria and misrepresent Israel without being called on it?

Pelosi has not only taken it upon herself to misrepresent U.S. policy, but she's screwing with Israeli policy as well.

Those Dems are great diplomats, aren't they?

I understand why Pelosi and Assad could relate to each other.
Read this September 2006 Spiegel interview with Assad.

He echoes the Dems' talking points. Bush is bad. It's all Bush's fault. Terrorists must be appeased to achieve peace.

SPIEGEL: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked Syria for its role in preventing the attack. In return, however, you sharply criticized America's Middle East policies. Why didn't you take advantage of this rare gesture of goodwill?

Assad: Ms. Rice didn't thank us for our policies, only for our response to the attack. But this attack happened precisely because of American policies in our region.

SPIEGEL: Why should the Americans be at fault?

Assad: Because they contribute to hopelessness in our country, and to silencing the dialogue between cultures. And then there is the condescending language -- the expression "islamofascism," which President Bush used, is a prime example. The pope's recent comments are also part of it. Such statements complicate the situation and create this need for revenge.

...

SPIEGEL: After the cease-fire between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, you gave a much-noted speech on the situation in the Middle East. In your speech, you mentioned a "critical stage of the history of Syria and the region." Wherein lies the opportunity?

Assad: First of all, it's clear to everyone that the status quo of war and conflict and instability is no longer acceptable. Now America enters the picture, because only America, because of its weight, can be the main broker for peace in the Middle East. But the Bush administration is under pressure. It's being accused of not having managed to bring about peace in six years. This pressure is good. Europe's foreign policy role is also growing. We specifically do not want a special role for the Europeans. We expect them to work together with America to achieve peace, and to do so on the basis of a vision America must develop.

...

Assad: But Israel occupies a part of my country - of course Israel is an enemy. If you want to play a role in our region, then you have to be able to see things from our point of view. That's also true for the classification of Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization." That cannot remain so. In 2004, Germany played an important role during the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah. That's exactly the point: to work within the realities that exist in this part of the world.

SPIEGEL: Germany's history also plays a role. Do you accept that Germany has a special responsibility for Israel?

Assad: Do you mean that Israel is allowed to kill Palestinians and Arabs because Jews at that time were killed in Germany?

SPIEGEL: No, of course not. We're talking about Israel's right to exist.

Assad: But why don't you also protect our right to exist? For us, the balance is important, and there, Europe is much closer to us than America. Europe knows our world.

Pelosi believes she has just opened the doors to peace in the Middle East.

In reality, she's legitimizing Syria's Bush-bashing and confusing Israel's policy.

I think Pelosi's script was written before she went to the Middle East and donned her headscarf.

Her Terrorist-palooza Tour had a pre-ordained purpose -- to disgrace President Bush.

I think she failed. She disgraced herself and the Democrat Party.