While America looks to NH, the World is Watching the Middle East

JOEL C. ROSENBERG, author and astute observer of all things Middle Eastern, is focusing on the significance of President Bush's trip to Israel while Americans are being distracted by the hoopla in New Hampshire. So what's the big deal of Bush's trip?

It's all well and good that (some, if not, many) Americans are interested in the presidential primaries to see who will be on the ballet in November, but for right now, the really earth shaking events may be taking place in Israel and its immediate environs.

Here's some of what Joel C. Rosenberg has to say from his blog regarding President Bush's trip to Israel:

President Bush leaves today for Israel and the West Bank where he will spend two days meeting with Prime Minister Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas....he will then fly to Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt for meetings with President Hosni Mubarak....from there, he heads to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait....I suspect he will also make an unannounced visit to Baghdad....the trip comes at an important time for the Bush administration....on the positive side, violence in Iraq has plummeted dramatically in the wake of the U.S. military "surge"....violence in Israel is at a seven-year low....Lebanon has not imploded, as has been feared for much of the past year....Syria has not retaliated against Israel for the fall airstrike that took out a North Korean nuclear facility under construction....severe internal divisions are surfacing within Iran's government, and there are fresh reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be losing favor with the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei....that said, the big question is: What will 2008 hold?....the recently-released National Intelligence Estimate on Iran notwithstanding, top Israeli officials I have spoken with are convinced Iran most certainly is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and could have a workable device by 2010....President Bush is saying publicly that he is convinced Iran remains a serious threat to U.S. and allied interests in the Middle East, and that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to another Holocaust...."If I were an Israeli, I would take the words of the Iranian president seriously, and as President of the United States I take them seriously," Bush said yesterday during an interview on Israeli army radio....he also vowed to defend Israel if Iran were to attack the Jewish state...

Rosenberg has more to say...just visit his above linked blog and earmark it to stay abreast of what's going on over there...from an insider.