If US Defense Secy Donald Rmsfeld's remarks yeserday are any measure, American support for Israel position has probably never been stronger. Asked for his opinions of Israeli communities in Judea, Smaraia, and Gaza, Rumsefeld essentially justified their existence and said they're a non-issue. Admitting that this might not be the official Bush Govt's position. Rumsfeld twice called the West Bank and Gaza "the so called occupied territories".
Secy of Defense also said "if you have a country that's a sliver and you can see there sides of it from a high hotal building, you've got to be careful what you give away and to whom you give it, if you're giving it to an entity that has some track record, that has a degree of accountability, that has the ability to enforece secuirty that's promise in whatever arragements are made, it seems to me that's one thing. If you're making a deal and yielding territory to an entity that cannot or will not do that - and there is no question but that the Palestinian Authoirty have have been involved with terrorist activities - so that maeks it a difficult interlocoutor.
My feeling about so called occupied territories are that there was a war, Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started, they all jumped in, and they lost a lost of read estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in that confilt, In the intervening period of the so-called occupied area, which was the result of a war which they (Israel) won.
Rumsfeld remarks were assumdly not welcomed by a Palestinian Authority delegation leb by Saeb Ereakat, that arrived in Washington around the same time to meet with top level US officals.
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