To Whom Is She Referring?

Condi Rice, speaking before the AIPAC Conference said:-

The opportunity before us has been created by painstaking work since 2001, painstaking work that rejected the leadership of Yasser Arafat and said that it could not be that peace would be made by a corrupt leader who had one foot in terrorism. (Applause.)

That couldn't be Olmert, could it? He is, it seems, corrupt but for terrorism? Maybe she means that he pushed for the disengagement and therefore is responsible, one foot much, for what's going on with the Qassams reaching Gaza and environs as far as Ashkelon with Ashdod and Kiryat Gat next?


P.S.

Here's another extract:-

Now, we [Ariel Sharon] had a wonderful relationship because I saw him as a man of courage and a man who deeply believed in the democratic Jewish state, but also in the desire for peace. And he once told me a story that I will never forget. It was before Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, and he said that he went out to talk with Israeli settlers, because he, of course, had been the father of the settlement movement. He went to one family and he explained to them why it was important to share the land. And this man said, “Let me show you something.” And he showed Sharon the mezuzah above their house, and he told Sharon, “You personally put that mezuzah there. You told us that this was good for Israel, for us to settle here, and now you tell us that we have to leave for the good of Israel.” Sharon was deeply pained by that. I could see it even as he told the story. But that is what great leaders do: They make hard decisions confidently for the sake of peace.

Really? That's what they do?


P.P.S.

JTA added:-

Condoleezza Rice at an AIPAC conference stressed the urgency of establishing a Palestinian state.

"The expansion of violence in the Middle East makes the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state more urgent, not less," the U.S. secretary of state said Tuesday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in Washington.

"The present opportunity is not perfect by any means, but it is better than any other in recent years and we need to seize it. Israelis have waited too long for the security they desire and deserve, and Palestinians have waited too long amidst daily humiliations for the dignity of a Palestinian state."

Rice's remarks were greeted with silence.