by Regina Sztajer

They are in for a rude awakening! Nancy Pelosi is assuming she rules much more than the House of Representatives, including having her own foreign policy. In her trip to the Middle East she created a bundle of trouble for herself in her position as next in succession for the presidency, behind Vice President Dick Cheney. In Damascus Syria for talks with Syrian President Bashir Assad Pelosi proved she was not equipped to deal with the long-standing conflict between Israel and the neighboring Arab states in the Middle East. Therefore, when she stated “the road to Damascus is a road to peace,” she was so wrong.(www.weeklystandard.com Fred Barnes 4/5/2007. What had eluded her was the complicated nature of diplomacy in the Middle East because her statement was not true. The road to Damascus was never the road to a path for peace, on the contrary, Assad’s father, who preceded him as president, made little effort for a peace settlement with Israel. Pelosi does not realize to get these countries together at the bargaining table has never happened and there is very little likelihood it will.

Her carrying an overture for peace talks from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Assad was not anything new. Olmert’s message to Syria was merely a re-statement of his country’s position. Israel would talk to Syria only after it stopped supporting the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas. It was an offer Syria would likely refuse. Pelosi is blind to this fact and she accepted Assad’s usual response declaring Syria was poised to “resume the peace process. ” (www.weeklystandard.com 4/5/2007. Pelosi assumed all that was needed was taking to Syria as advised by the Iraq Study Group and foreign policy establishment. It is hoped she realized this fact was not true. The Bush administration tried for five years to talk to Syria and it got us nowhere therefore, it got her nowhere. The Bush administration is much more adept at foreign policy than Pelosi and it has adopted a policy of isolating Syria. But Syria is not isolated because diplomats from Europe and other members of Congress with less rank than Pelosi have sat down to talk to Assad with no result. Her statements created a problem for both Israel and the U.S. who had to clarify her responses. Administration officials pointed out the road from Damascus to peace she had pointed out is also is the road by which terrorists ship arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and insurgents in Iraq.

Pelosi was meddling in delicate diplomacy in the Middle East that she is not qualified for. Was she damaging? Probably not but seen by Arabs as a bubbling misfit for international politics. Pelosi is no Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice!! She should stay home and fly nonstop to California for the duration. Hillary Clinton best beware Pelosi just might decide to join the fray because she thinks she is already a world power.The U.S. State Department is hoping a coalition of mainstream Sunni Arabs will contain the threat of a nuclear Iran, and stabilize Iraq and Lebanon. This fact requires a new effort for Rice and some shuttle diplomacy to help settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which the Jordanians and Saudis claim is part of the problem of regional conflicts. So far she has been successful in the fact that Olmert and Palestinain President Mahmoud Abbas meet regularly. The Saudi’s have hosted a summit in Mecca and twisted some arms to induce Hamas and Fatah leaders to form a unity government pledging cash. The Saudi’s had promised reissue a 2002 Arab peace plan as a starting point for negotiations with Israel. But as yet the king and non of his top aides have gone to Jerusalem to meet on neutral soil. The Saudi’s need to put some muscle into their actions.

Olmert has invited Arab leader, including the Saudi’s, to meet with him to talk peace. But Olmert has little support in Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah are rearming in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories while Iran flouts the UN and continues its drive for nuclear supremacy and Iraq trembles. Pelosi went to Syria to make a point that the Bush administration should talk to our enemies which echoed the Iraq Study Group report. Hopefully she has learned when you go to the Middle East you better know what your talking about.