Bush getting wobbly, again

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Seems that CP Abdullah's visit to President Bush has had the effect of softening Bush's resolve in the war on terror. Abdullah apparently was able to convince Bush that the only way to fight the war on terror was to stop PM Sharon from enlisting on our side. In return, he promised to stop Arafat from continuing to direct terrorist attacks against Israel. Here's what Todd Purdum had to say in his article in the New York Times:

Mr. Bush insists his approach can work, if only the Israelis and the Palestinians follow his lead. "I'm optimistic we're making good progress," he said on Thursday, after meeting with European leaders about the Middle East at the White House. "After all, a week ago, Yasir Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of evidently, German peace protesters and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to lead the world."

Lead the world? Lead it in what? Terrorism?

...in recent days, the Israeli officials have been campaigning to dismiss Mr. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority as a plausible negotiating partner, based on documents Israel has seized in raids on the West Bank, and interrogations of some 1,800 Palestinians arrested during the offensive, including senior aides to Mr. Arafat. Israeli intelligence officials have ... what they say is evidence showing that the Palestinian Authority presides over a terrorist network, one that plans, finances and executes its own suicide bombings against civilians, and cooperates with militant Islamic groups. Israel has begun to show a sampling of what it says it has ...: homemade weapons, disguises, stolen Israeli identity cards, posters in honor of the suicide bombers and some of the roughly 500,000 documents seized. Among the documents are ones that appear to record Mr. Arafat's approval of a $600 payment to the leader of an attack on a bat mitzvah party that left six people dead and 50 wounded, and a Palestinian request to build a heavy arms workshop. There is also a document bearing the logo of the Saudi Committee for Assistance to the Al Quds Intifada that, the Israelis say, details more than $500,000 in payments to the families of 102 "martyrs," at least 8 of whom were involved in suicide attacks.

Here's the problem the Israelis have: they think they are fighting a war on terror based on the Bush Doctrine. But the White House has discarded the Bush Doctrine. It now believes that you can negotiate a political settlement with terrorists:

White House officials say that even if the documents are convincing, they do not remove the political necessity to work with Mr. Arafat under the kind of peace plan that Mr. Bush is trying to pursue with the help of friendly Arab countries.

Allow me to defend the Bush Doctrine even if the man for whom it is named no longer believes in it.