Tell Us What He Really Thinks

I can’t believe I didn’t catch this one until now — why didn’t somebody tell me?

Slate‘s Will Saleten doesn’t have much use for the Administration’s new Palestine policy.

Is he afraid it gives too much to those who sponsored the Passover Seder Massacre? Don’t be silly.

Does he not approve of Bush’s insistence that Israel eventually move out of Palestinian lands? Nope, no problem there.

Might Saleten think that demanding a halt to new Jewish settlements on the West Bank is too rash? Uh-uh.

Well then, maybe he’s against providing money and advisors to a fledgling state? Noooope, not a peep on that.

Will Saleten doesn’t like Bush’s new policy because he thinks it doesn’t give enough away to the barbarians waging war against women and children. Read:

This afternoon, President Bush outlined his long-awaited plan for resolving the Middle East conflict. He gratified Israelis and dismayed Palestinians by demanding, as a condition of Palestinian statehood, a complete overhaul of the Palestinian leadership. But that’s just the most obvious caveat in Bush’s proposal. The raw deal for Palestinians isn’t the hoops they’ll have to jump through to get their prize. It’s the dubiousness of the prize.

Saleten thinks Palestinians deserve a full nation-state, right now, with all the rights and none of the responsibilities that implies. Saleten thinks that terrorists should be rewarded for terrorism, that Arafat is a fine choice for leadership, and that Israel’s nearly undefendable 1967 borders are as dandy as all get out.

Will Saleten thinks we’re idiots.