Sharansky: Annapolis Catastrophic for Israel

Ugh ….everything I’ve been saying. And the Condi smackdown is long overdue. Long overdue.

WASHINGTON — A former Soviet dissident and Israeli deputy premier whose ideas President Bush has cited as an inspiration for his ambitious freedom agenda said the peace talks kicked off this week at Annapolis "has nothing to do with promoting democracy," and he warned that Israel will be lucky if it does not end in catastrophe for the Jewish state.

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In an interview yesterday, Natan Sharansky
said he did not feel betrayed by Mr. Bush, whom he called a friend. But
he said, "I am upset." "The greatness of President Bush is the way he
would believe in the power of the idea of freedom," Mr. Sharansky said.
"He believes in principles; he was willing to stand alone against all
for these pressures, but it is not enough to stand for principles. He
has to appoint the people who share these beliefs and who would
implement them. He has not."

Those words appear to be a direct criticism of Secretary of State Rice,
who has made the creation of a Palestinian Arab state her top priority
in the last year, visiting Jerusalem nine times to press for the launch
of final status negotiations between the government of Israel and the
nearly vanquished Palestinian Authority, now dominated by Fatah after
the takeover of Gaza by Hamas in June.

Rick Richman has the 4 minute  video here of Sharansky at the offices of Commentary;

Natan Sharansky on the Annapolis Process Jewish Current Issues

Tuesday evening, after the Annapolis conference, Natan Sharansky the
offices of COMMENTARY and filmed a
Q&A with editor Sam Munson. The four-minute video is below, with a
transcript of Sharansky’s analysis of Annapolis