Bush’s Visit to Israel

I heard something very unexpected the other day on the way home. I was listening to NPR and caught a blurb taken from Bush’s speech regarding the Israeli/Palsetinian conflict. He mentioned the typical shit: Palestinians needing to stop their violence against the Israeli “defense” forces. Israel needing to halt any “unauthorized” new settlements. I made careful note that this was an unfortunate departure from the earlier rhetoric that called for an end to all new settlements. Essentially, Bush was once again providing a way for Isreal to shirk its obligations to the Palestinian people.

I felt my blood warming up in disgust as tends to be the case whenever I hear one of his blunderous performances. And then I heard something odd. A single word… that, for all intents and purposes, had no reason to appear in a Bush speech on the Mideast conflict.

He uttered the word, contiguous. Specifically, he said, “The vision of a Palestinian state is one of contiguous territory…. Swiss cheese isn’t going to work when it comes to the territory of a state.” Now, for anyone with any understanding of what Israel’s been doing for the last 40 years, these words are huge. “Swiss cheese” is a very good analogy, in fact, and to have Bush stand up and say it “isn’t going to work” means that I may have to concede that I, for once, agree with the guy. As much as it hurts me to say this… the guy is right this (one and only) time.

Now, do I think his speech will actually bring about an end to the apartheid-like condiditons that Israel has been imposing against the Palestinian people for the last 40 years? No. But… but… this single speech may spark the chance for a new vocabulary to enter the discourse, and that chance, while remote, is very significant. After all, sometimes finding the right words is all one needs to shift the thinking of those who might otherwise prefer to keep their eyes and ears closed.

Here’s hoping.