Posted 7/16/2002 10:00:00 AM by Ocean Guy
The latest Mark Steyn column picks on our European 'friends'. This time about their reaction to Bush's statement that the Palestinians need new leadership if they want any American cooperation.

Arafat isn't just toast, he's buttered and dripping marmalade. Israel knows it, the Arabs know it, Hamas knows it, his Fatah cronies know it, and ol' man Yasser knows it. The only folks who haven't figured it out are senior British civil servants, European foreign ministers, and the Danish prime minister, who has requested an urgent meeting with the United States to get "the peace process" "back on track."


By "peace process," our Danish friend means "Oslo." Sorry, pal. That show's been canceled. For the last 2-1/2 weeks we've been in the post-Oslo era, and the only thing that's "puerile" is those snooty civil servants who can manage no more insightful reaction to an extraordinary moment in Middle Eastern affairs than to make Winnie the Pooh cracks. The ground is shifting under your feet: If you want to wind up in the heffalump pit of history while the world passes you by, carry on. The continentals are in danger of being the only guys in Yasser's Rolodex who still return his calls.