Bush's New Year Wish-list: New Secretary of State?

DebkaFile reports that Pres. Bush was displeased with Secy of State Condoleeza Rice's endeavoring to go behind Israel's (and Pres Bush's) back to elicit U.N. supervision of Israel's Annapolis obligations. This was rumored as her seeking to bolster Israel's balking at her Annapolis concession and dhimmitude demands.

Debka publishes,"This incident led also to the first real falling-out between President George W. Bush and his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. He blamed her for seeking to bolster the Annapolis declaration by Security Council endorsement, thereby exposing the hyped-up event to the world as a charade and his own declaration as too flimsy to stand up."

Ed Lasky makes the argument (augmented at Atlas Shrugs) for the case for replacing Rice in this letter :

"Many people have begun to express frustration and disillusionment with our Secretary of State Condi Rice. Now she reaches a new low.

Let's recap: Condi forced Israel to allow Palestinian elections which brought Hamas to power, pushed Israel to turn over one of the Gaza Strips' borders to Egypt-which has played an active role in the smuggling of arms and the empowerment of Hamas, has been pushing Israel to ignore the Road Map and leapfrog (an Evil Knievel leap in the dark) into final status negotiations with the Palestinians, and has generally acted in a way that has facilitated war, not peace.

Now she blames her lack of previous efforts on Ariel Sharon! Now she is active in the Middle East because...why....well , to paraphrase, Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a massive stroke and now lies in a coma? How diplomatic. Condi Rice must be breathing a sigh of relief now that Ariel Sharon lies near death.

Of course, Condi Rice ignores the Palestinian failures: their teaching of terrorism, their violation of all previous agreemnts with Israelis, the corruption that allowed the rise of Hamas, the use of religion to teach hatred, the active efforts to create a terrorist infrastructure, the failure to prepare their people for compromise and peace?

She also ignores the fact that Ariel Sharon took the painful steps to destroy the settlements in the Sinai when this land was turned over to Egypt in the wake of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt and tat Areild Sharon also made the decision to uproot the settlements in the Gaza." - Ed Lasky

Now, ignoring Iran's avowed threats to destroy America's ally Israel, DebkaFile reports that Secy Rice offers Iran more carrot than stick - better relations for suspending uranium enrichment and abandoning “confrontation.”

The Bush administration has so far made the running by giving Iran a clean
bill of health from US intelligence and this week’s approval of a shipment of
nuclear fuel from Russia for Iran’s atomic reactor in Bushehr. Both the US and
Russian presidents declared that following this delivery, Iran had no further
need to develop its own uranium enrichment capabilities.

Losing patience with the lack of reciprocity from Tehran, Secretary Rice and Ambassador Schulte outlined the script which Washington expects Iran to follow. While Rice emphasized the potential rewards – and appealed for suspension rather than halting enrichment - Schulte stressed Iran must acknowledge that it had a
nuclear program up until 2003. “ And we’re looking for them to cooperate fully
with the agency in understanding their current activities.”

This was a warning that if Iran was shown to have resumed its weapons program after 2003,Washington would revise its intelligence estimate, bringing tough sanctions back into the foreground of the crisis.

At the same time, the Iranians may well interpret these statements as reflecting Washington’s despair of achieving much from its efforts for an accommodation before the Bush administration’s tenure runs out. This assessment would tend to toughen their bargaining position.