Brit Hume, the Un-spinner

Everything I've been hearing all day on NPR and PBS was about how we're really in for it from the Saudis if we don't clamp down on Israel.

"In turn, Bush urged the crown prince to rally other Arab leaders behind a Mideast peace process and to pressure Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to end terrorism.

"A spokesman for the Saudi embassy, Nail Al Jubeir, shot down a New York Times story from Thursday that said Abdullah came to Crawford to tell Bush that it is Bush's last chance for constructive relations with the Arab world, and that the key to recovery is to get Israel to back off its hardline dealing with the Palestinians."

The Arab world is writing checks they can't cover, but their leaders won't countersign them, because they know how impotent their countries really are. So Abdullah goes to Crawford and rides in the presidential truck, everyone dances the kabuki program and he goes home.

The press keeps pressing the "peace now" button but it is still stuck and they don't know anything else to do, but look to the Europeans for guidance. What's it called when you keep doing the same thing over and over despite the fact that nothing is happening?

If any of these people could set aside their indoctrination for a just a moment they'd realize that Israel is not the villain in this, and that its actions have been successful in putting a stop to the suicide bombers, if only until Arafat can rebuild his terrorist network. As the facts continue to seep out, we learn that the big massacre wasn't really, that many of the buildings destroyed were blown up by Palestinian booby traps. Now we learn that the Israelis photographed the whole thing from the air and can prove their side of the story, not that anybody will listen.

This only makes it more important that the United States not be intimidated by negative press and world opinion into abandoning the only democracy in the region.