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Bolton he is not

Tuesday, 4th December 2007

Last week, I happened to meet America’s former Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton. He was utterly dismayed about Annapolis. President Bush, he said, had torn up everything he believed in. Bolton thought the main reason this had happened was that Bush was simply so determined to get Iraq right that he had left absolutely everything else to Condoleezza Rice and the depredations of the State Department. The result was that at Annapolis, terror had been rewarded, its Israeli victims offered up as sacrificial lambs and the Bush doctrine fed to the flames.

If Bush did allow his attention to wander so dangerously, another spectacular car crash has been Bolton’s successor as UN Ambassador, the much-lionised Zalmay Khalilzad, in the immediate aftermath of Annapolis. In a startling departure from diplomatic protocol, last Thursday Khalilzad tried to present to the Security Council, on the penultimate day of its chairmanship by Indonesia, a US resolution endorsing the Annapolis joint statement — without even showing Israel the text first. No wonder: Israel would have undoubtedly gone ballistic, since such an endorsement would have given teeth to the Annapolis suicide note and involved Israel's mortal enemies in overseeing the ‘peace process’. When this piece of treachery was discovered, the US hastily withdrew its resolution.

It turns out that Khalilzad may have one or two agendas of his own. Last Tuesday, American eyebrows hit the roof when Fox News discovered US Ambassador Khalilzad having lunch with George Soros, the billionaire anti-Bush activist and funder of Moveon.org. As Fox observed, on the surface the two of them would appear to have had little to talk about.

Strange how Soros keeps popping up in this kind of context — he is of course a close associate of Britain’s controversial minister for the UN Lord Malloch Brown, whose peculiar appointment to the British government no-one has yet been able to explain.

As the New York Sun has gone on to tell us, Khalilzad’s intriguing luncheon companion last week was by no means his only chum with a profoundly anti-western agenda:

A former top U.N. inside operator largely considered a foe by Washington, Pakistan's Iqbal Riza, was the first man Mr. Khalilzad had for lunch as he moved into the official ambassador's residence at the Waldorf-Astoria in April.

Khalizad has also mentioned his close friendship with former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi . But Brahami has repeatedly expressed his hostility to Israel and has been reported as boasting that he was proud

never to have knowingly shaken the hand of an Israeli or a Jew.

Just like the Saudis at Annapolis – the subject of Ambassador Khalilzad’s attempted UN demarche. Well there's a coincidence.

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Saul

December 4th, 2007 12:53pm

Dear Melanie!!! And what about Iran and the latest National Intelligence Estimate.Now Bush administration washes its hands of confrontation with Tehran over nuclear weapons program. And my country was betrayed once more

Shy Guy

December 4th, 2007 2:45pm

Wake up and smell the cesspool.

Robert

December 4th, 2007 3:13pm

Dear Miss Phillips, Perhaps you should give some thought to the precarious state of the US Dollar and the ability of the House of Saud and others to tip it over the edge. I think that recognition of this realpolitik situation in Washington will explain in part the volte-face in both US policy and rhetoric towards Israel at Annapolis and at the latest National Intelligence Estimate regarding Irans pursuit of Nuclear WMD capability.

Marjan

December 4th, 2007 10:44pm

UN Security Council Resolutions introduced by the United States originate in the State Department in Washington. The Permanent Representative does not make them up on the way to the chamber. And for the record, I have seen Lakhdar Brahimi - an incredibly able diplomat - shake the hand of many Jewish people. Publishing something as scurrilous as that statement is not only unfair, it makes The Spectator appear to not be a serious publication.

John very Angry

December 4th, 2007 10:59pm

Robert, You've hit the nail on the head. The House of Saud has threatened to sell their depreciating greenbacks and Bush is beholden to them. Perhaps we should ask those eminent academics, Walt and Mearsheimer to do an updated research study on the influence of the Jewish lobby on American Foreign Policy!

Mike

December 5th, 2007 9:22am

'Bolton he is not' - thank god!

roGER

December 5th, 2007 5:16pm

Bolton the Buffooon was a disgrace the United States. A deeply flawed personality; he fawned to his superiors and bullied his subordinates. The appointment of this clumsy fool to represent the world's premier democracy in the U.N. is symbolic of the Bush administration's attitude to international relations. By God the citizens and youth of America have paid a terrible price for that attitude.

Abe Bird

December 5th, 2007 10:46pm

Mike, did you mean: 'Bolton he is not' - thank Allah! ?????

Mike

December 6th, 2007 2:32pm

Abe Bird. With respect - you go with your god, I'll go with mine! But seriously - I'm not affiliated to any particular religion - thank god! I'm just one of millions who subscribe to Judeo/Christian values. You know, justice, legal and moral codes, tolerance - all that sort of stuff.

Alex

December 6th, 2007 6:04pm

And what do you think of Obadiah Shoher's arguments against the peace process ( samsonblinded.org/blog/we-need-a-respite-from-peace.htm )?

Alex

December 6th, 2007 6:06pm

And what do you think of Obadiah Shoher's arguments against the peace process ( samsonblinded.org/blog/we-need-a-respite-from-peace.htm )?

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.

For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here