"JOINT UNDERSTANDING" IS ONLY GOING DOWNHILL

Just more negotiations it is, and a forced handshake. At the Washington Times, Frank Gaffney calls the Annapolis folly a "gang rape".

See also this item, in which it's told that:

As Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas meeting with US President George Bush, Channel Two Mideast expert Ehud Yaari reports that one of the few points of agreements that the two sides have reached is that the US will become the judge of all outstanding disputes, effectively putting the Americans in the position to dictate a solution to the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Bush began his speech by reading the joint statement, stumbling over the names of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The statement did not include a definition of Israel as a Jewish state, which Olmert said he would insist upon as a requirement of any such statement. He apparently gave in to American pressure, and had to content himself with Bush referring to Israel as the "Jewish homeland."

Most significantly, the joint statement said that the United States would "monitor and judge" implementation of the roadmap, and that "implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States."

While this represents an improvement from the roadmap, where the Quartet -- the US, UN, EU and Russia -- was to be the arbiter, it effectively hands the future of Israel to the United States, since it can be safely assumed that the Israelis and Palestinians will not be able to agree about anything. This is the trap that has been sprung on Israel.

The statement said that the goal was to reach a Peace Treaty by the end of 2008, just over thirteen months.

In other words, once again, the exact fate of Israel has been put in the hands of the US administration.