The President is currently in Israel. In part, he is there to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel, but in part he is there to help along the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. I have no issues with anyone visiting there for either of those reasons, but his true motivations behind the latter of the two reasons is nothing short of despicable. Everyone would like for there to be peace in Israel, but his motivation is quite different from most.

George W. Bush is poised to leave office in January 2009 as one of the worst United States Presidents in history, if not truly the worst. He, along with the help of his cronies (read: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, et al), has abolished many of the basic constitutional rights we take for granted, has led us in to an unjust quagmire of a war, helped lead oil prices to an all-time high, has greatly abused and extended executive power, has created a devastatingly huge national debt, is leading us in to a recession, and countless other atrocities, many of which should have earned him an impeachment (if only the congress had a spine).

Back on topic, if our President truly did care about establishing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, he likely would have attempted to negotiate peace sooner than his absolute last year in office (of an eight-year term, none the less) and he probably would have visited Israel more than a total of two times. This is not an attempt on his part of establishing peace in the Middle East. It is an attempt at salvaging the shattered remains of his legacy and hoping he can be remembered for something other than the various failures I listed above. He is desperately hoping that real peace between the Israelis and Palestinians happens before he leaves office, so he can claim responsibility. Whatever the opposite of a Nobel Peace Prize is, he deserves it.