The Oddfather: Don BUSH Makes a Mideast Speech

Yesterday speech about the Middle East President Bush called for a Mid East conference, I can just see it when Don Bush, the Oddfather sits around a table with his " Guests Olmert and Abbas Don Bush

"There's a lot of trouble with this Hamas buisness. It's very unfortunate. I know the Gazas are a bit misfortunate... down on their heads. Well... that's life. Everyone's got their own circle of sorrow."

"What have I ever done to make Hamas treat me so disrespectfully? If they'd come to me in friendship, then this scum would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you."

Looking at Abbas:

"I'm a superstitious man, and if some unlucky accident should befall Ehud - if he is to be shot in the head by a police officer, or be found hung dead in a jail cell... or if he should be struck by a bolt of lightning - then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room; and then I do not forgive. But with said, I pledge - on the souls of my grandchildren - that I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made today."

"Well when Arafat was first starting out, he was signed to this contract with a the French. And as his career got better and better he wanted to get out of it. Now, Arafat is my father's godson. My father went to see the French with a contract for $10,000 to let Johnny go, but the bandleader said no. So the next day, my father went to see the bandleader again, only this time with Luca Brasi. Within an hour, the bandleader signed the release, with a certified check of $1000."

Bush Turns to Olmert and waves money at Abbas:

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

Then back at Abbas

"Young man, I hear you and your friends are stealing goods. But you don't even send a dress to my house. No respect! You know I've got two daughters. This is my neighborhood. You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little. I hear you and your friends cleared $600 each. Give me $200 each, for your own protection. And I'll forget the insult. You young punks have to learn to respect a man like me! Otherwise the cops will come to your house. And your family will be ruined. Of course, if I'm wrong about how much you stole, I'll take a little less. And by less, I only mean - a hundred bucks less. Now don't refuse me. Understand, paisan? Understand, paisan?... Tell your friends I don't want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak. Don't be afraid to tell them !"

Fredo Olmert Responds:

"It ain't the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect!"

Unfortunately this isn't a movie real lives are at stake and so is the future of Israel and the Jewish people. Bush thinks that he can get what he wants by throwing money around, Abbas learned from Arafat that is worth faking peace to get some hard cash, but don't let it last too long and Olmert just wants people to like him and his stupid looking comb-over...sounds more like a recipe for disaster than for peace.

BRIBING ABBAS

By JOHN PODHORETZ

July 17, 2007 -- PRESIDENT Bush yester day essentially told the Palestinian people that American money would rain down on their heads - kind of like the manna that fed the Jews in the desert thousands of years ago - if they just renounced terror.

What Bush said is simply a matter of fact. Right now, America is raining half a billion dollars on the Palestinian government solely because it's kinda-sorta acting a little bit like it's maybe possibly giving up on terror.

And, if the Palestinians just straightened up and flew right, there'd be a whole lot more where that came from.

In a major address on the current Palestinian political crisis yesterday afternoon, Bush tried to make clear just how beneficial it would be for the Palestinians if they just did the plain, simple and inarguably right thing: Recognize Israel, cease using terror as a political instrument and embrace democratization.

A Palestinian state would follow in very short order. And that state would be the recipient of warm-hearted largesse like the world has seldom showed to any other new country.

America has opened the national pocketbook to the Palestinians in recent weeks simply because the legitimate government headed by Mahmoud Abbas kicked the terrorist faction Hamas out of his Cabinet - following Hamas's takeover of Gaza.

The Bush administration thinks the Hamas takeover of Gaza has convinced Abbas (at least theoretically) that his only hope for the future lies in an American embrace.

Or at least Bush is paying him enough to think and say that.

The first $190 million came out through the floodgates right after the Hamas-Abbas breakup: The money had been promised to the Palestinians if they would have free elections, but got held up once Abbas invited Hamas into his Cabinet - because Hamas is a terrorist group, and by U.S. law our government can't fund terrorists.

Our president then approved $228 million in loans to help Palestinian-own businesses - a clear effort to bolster Abbas. And yesterday Bush added another $80 million "to help Palestinians reform their security services," whatever that means.

That's $498 million - half a billion solely because Abbas is not Hamas.

Now, imagine just how much there would be if, as a general rule, Palestinian politics managed to get beyond the death-worshipping, martyr-seeking, Jew-hating, genocide-craving lunacy that has both seduced its people and trapped them in a cycle of pointless, self-defeating despair for decades now: Half a billion would be the merest drop in the bucket.

But it's not likely that there's going to be much more than that half-billion.

In the first place, we have no reason to expect that a single cent of that money is going to go anywhere helpful or do anything good.

President Bush may believe Abbas has it in him to be the Gandhi of Ramallah and the Martin Luther King Jr. of Hebron - but Abbas was also Yasser Arafat's trusted aide, and one thing about Arafat and his trusted aides is that they were and are a bunch of shameless, slimy, monstrous thieves.

The history of Western aid to Palestinians is an unending and repugnant tale of graft, theft and pilferage. According to the Arab daily al-Watan, the International Monetary Fund and numerous others, when Yasser Arafat died, he had several billion dollars in various bank accounts around the world.

The thievery didn't stop with Arafat's death. In the three years since, the Palestinian government has remained a corrupt kleptocracy.

One of the main reasons for the terrifying success of Hamas at the polls in early 2006 was Palestinian rage at the inability or unwillingness of the Arafat/Abbas government to do anything - anything - that offered any kind of improvement in the day-to-day lives of the people living under its yoke.

Of course, the Palestinian people also liked Hamas better because Hamas is, if possible, even more bloodthirsty toward Israel and the Jews than Abbas' own Fatah faction.

Bush made it clear yesterday that the choice is in the hands of the Palestinian people. They need to change, not just their leaders.

Which is why - despite Bush's embrace of diplomatic techniques used in the past solely to put pressure on Israel - supporters of Israel shouldn't fear the results of yesterday's speech.

Yes, Bush called for an "international conference." Yes, he spoke warmly of European and Arab participation in a two-state solution. But he made it clear that, in the American perspective - which is really the only perspective that matters - there will only be a Palestinian state if there is a Palestinian revolution in consciousness.

"The Palestinian people must decide that they want a future of decency and hope - not a future of terror and death," he said.

He continued: "They must match their words denouncing terror with action to combat terror. The Palestinian government must arrest terrorists, dismantle their infrastructure, and confiscate illegal weapons . . . They must work to stop attacks on Israel and to free the Israeli soldier held hostage by extremists. And they must enforce the law without corruption, so they can earn the trust of their people, and of the world. Taking these steps will enable the Palestinians to have a state of their own."

Yes, taking these steps will enable the Palestinians to have a state of their own. But every indication we have is that they are marching in the opposite direction, and so are the chances of a Palestinian state for years to come.