From an interview with the founder of "Mecca-Cola":

Mecca Cola's Mathlouthi said that his company would also only support recognized charities. "We will send goods, products, anything they need for schools or for hospitals. I will support the Palestinians personally during the intifada. The company will not support military actions or political actions. It is not my purpose or my job - only on the humanitarian side," he said.

Asked how he viewed Palestinian suicide bombings on Israeli civilians, he said: "I cannot protest against suicide bombings because it is resistance against occupation. And they have the right to resist by any way against the occupation," he said.

I hate to write this, but I'm getting decidedly Christian ritual associations...

Read Cinderella Bloggerfeller's translation of an interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy, the author of "Who killed Daniel Pearl?"

Angua, commenting on The Poor Man (optimized):

And if either Israel or the Palestinians were able to sneeze without attracting twice the local population in "reporters", the conflict may also have been resolved by now.

I am not sure whether the visual association Mr. Bush's final statement --

Waving his arms, the president earlier told reporters his aim was to keep the process moving, like a cowboy on horseback herding cattle. "I used the expression 'ride herd.' I don't know if anybody understood it in the meeting today," he said

-- evokes in my mind, namely the image of a good ol' boy swinging his whip at a swarthy, hook-nosed bunch of regrettable natives, is all too far off the mark. (Ha'aretz report)

Your comments haven't disappeared. May Enetation forgive me, but I've switched back to Haloscan. I'll paste the old comments into the new system in a short time.

Update: In case you missed it: Haloscan is accepting new signups now.

Or how to get the government of the most powerful country in the world to dance to your tune:

Aides said the one leader in the region who has earned Bush's respect is Abdullah, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who forcefully challenged the president over his handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., in April of last year.

In a scene that one senior Bush adviser later likened to "a near-death experience," Abdullah arrived at Crawford with a book showing pictures of Palestinian suffering and a 10-minute videotape of images of children shot and crushed by Israelis that had appeared on Arab television.

The adviser said Abdullah spoke eloquently about what these images meant -- conveying a respect for life rather than a hatred of Israel -- and then laid it on the line for Bush: Was he going to do something about this or not?

Current and former officials said Abdullah put it this way: I will work with you if you are willing to deal with this issue. If you can't, let me know now. No matter what, I'll always say positive things about you in public. But I have to make certain calculations on my own if you aren't going to step up to the plate.

Bush replied that he was working on a vision and would present it soon, the current and former officials said.

"It certainly made an impact on the president," one official said.

Few leaders had ever spoken so directly to Bush. The president, the official said, concluded that Abdullah was a good person who has a vision of where he wants to lead his country. Since then, the president frequently asks aides whether Abdullah believes Bush is living up to the commitments he made at Crawford.

This is not Libération for a change. This is the Washington Post report this Ha'aretz article refers to.