Rice never had "plans" at any point during her present postion. What a sorry excuse for a secretary of state she is. It goes along with the incompetence of the rest the Bush administration, especially Bush himself.

Does Rice mean that the "durable and sustainable" cease-fire should come after the impending ground invasion? The bombardment of the past week has been on a swath of a heavily populated area 25 miles long and 3 to 7 miles wide, making the incursions comparable to shock and awe and apparently primed enough for a ground assault. The timing has certainly been most peculiar - not only has it been on the eve of Israeli elections, but also in the midst of a presidential transition.

What? Hamas' overwhelming democratic election victory over Abbas is an "illegal coup"?
What? Has Rice cracked up?
Both the President and President-Elect are missing in action (holidaying) while hundreds die and we have to listen to this person having a delusional breakdown as our US spokesperson?
Time to clean out the Stygian Stables.
Shame on this Administration and shame on the silent President-Elect.
Blaming the victim. Disgusting.
Palestinians and Muslims around the world will now flock to support Hamas.
And these idiots we have elected will achieve the opposite of their stupid calculations.

Where is Abbas? He should be preparing to move security and civil service personnel into Gaza when a cease fire is established.

The article is titled wrong. It should read:

"Rice supports killing women and children for a durable and sustainable period"

Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. Israel did everything in its power to avoid taking any military action. But Hamas keeps on firing Rockets into Israeli cities and shooting at innocent people. These attacks have been going on since 2001! Would any country allow this to go on for such a long time? Hell NO! Would the US accept rockets being fired at San Diego from the Mexican Border? Would Spain allow rockets to fly on its citizens from France? Of course NOT! We are dealing with Terrorists who are holding the poor people of Gaza hostage. The Hamas so cynically uses its own people as human shields. These people have no mercy and should be treated the same way! It is time for to uproot this evil once and for all!

Hamas is a terror organization. It did indeed win the election in Gaza and took over power. So basically the people of Gaza ousted Abbas and the Fattah party and voted to put into power a terror organization. They clearly supported Hamas' agenda to wipe Israel. They support Hamas' terror activities. By doing so they abandoned the path of peace and negotiation led by Abbas and adopted so warmly the deadly goals of Hamas. Now they are surprised that Israel is retaliating to the terror action of Hamas? What did they think? That Hamas will smuggle rockets and missiles from Iran, constantly fire rockets into Israeli cities and that nothing will happen?? They must be kidding! When the Gazans will choose LIFE over Death, maybe then their lives will look a bit better. Until they allow Hamas to keep them hostage they will continue to suffer!

When a reporter shouted a question to Rice about whether she would fly to the Middle East to try to broker a peace deal she said, "I have no plans at this point." And when pressed in the briefing on the subject of a final Rice trip to the Middle East, Johndroe said, the Secretary has been on the phones constantly for a week "so, we don't see a particular need for her to travel to the region when she can do her work from here."

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Translation: Rice is wasting her time. None of the combatants will listen to her.

This is true trying to influence without any authority. The only tool would be credibility. Rice has very little with Israel and none with Hamas.

In the case of Hamas, distasteful as it is, Hamas is a real viable force in this conflict. Bush/Rice made a terrible tragic mistake when they excluded Hamas from the peace negotiations starting with the Anapolis Conference.

What good is yet another cease-fire when one side repeatedly breaks them? How many treaties, truces and cease-fires have been broken?

As Bill Clinton has said. "This is all a big fairytale." Obama will have to deal with Israel and Hamas then find that peace with Hamas is a big fairytale. Hamas has a blood oath to destroy Israel and will not stop its effort until Israel is wiped off the map or Hamas is permanently defeated in death and principle. Peace with Hamas and a lasting ceasefire with Hamas is a big fairytale.

Apparently her bloodlust has been satisfied. Come on Rice, condemn those settlements and checkpoints and then we might get somewhere.

Condi is correct, and Hillary will follow her lead! :)

Condi, we'll let you leave before Jan 20th, no need to finish out - just leave.

You're the picture of incompetence.

? "..if we had not stole away the region after world war two from its rightful occupants the whole muslim worldwould not hate us." That is so naive. Their doctrine is world dominance and the west is getting in the way of that. Just see how Europe, Russia, and China are fairing. Anyone up to date on the cultural conflicts brewing with the influx of the Muslim influence? i.e. France, Spain, etc..

Condoleezza Rice, having observed that more than 300 Gazans were dead, said: "We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence. We strongly condemn the attacks on Israel and hold Hamas responsible."

Someone should ask her to comment on teenage knife-crime, to see if she'd say: "I strongly condemn the people who've been stabbed, and until they abandon their practice of wandering around clutching their sides and bleeding, there is no hope for peace."

As Condoleezza Rice is in the last lap of her term as Secretary of State, the situation in the Middle East merits answering if Ms. Rice ever had a clear-cut plan to further the American interests of stabilising the situation in the region surrounding the volatile Iraq? Or was all this just a part of treadmill diplomacy where you jog at one place without covering any distances at all? Has Secretary Condoleezza Rice been running in a rut as a regular feature of her diplomacy tourism during her periodic trips to the Middle East?

This question become even more pertinent on the heels of the third anniversary since she launched her "transformational diplomacy" on 18 January 2006 declaring:
"America needs equally bold diplomacy, a diplomacy that not only reports about the world as it is, but seeks to change the world itself. I and others have called this mission "transformational diplomacy." http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/59306.htm

The above pronouncement begs another question: In seeking to change the whole world, how well did the State Department adapts itself to keep pace with the dynamics of change? In retrospective, was all those dashes to the Middle East a diplomacy tourism road show featuring?

mbelltx-----no your ideas are naive... how would you feel if at every turn over aperiod of 1000 years or more white man had been comeing to yoru land and takeing it and telling you what to do. you would be pissed off also...if we just let themalone let them be muslim let them destroy the evil nation of israel then they wouldnt hate us so much.

T - At some point the world needs to decide how to reconcile the diversity in ideologies or accept the genocide one inflicts upon the other. So when is enough enough? When all are toothless and blind from a terminal cycle of vengeance or when everyone is willing to listen to a small child begging their elders to give peace a chance? I hear children begging but Hamas has already made its blood oath to wipe Israel off the map and Israel is doing what it can to counter that. Stop the rockets if you truly want peace and reasonable people will find mutually beneficial solutions.

I wonder why would anyone please throw a sandal at her! This woman joined the criminal triad of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield in cheating and lying to americans about WMD and war in Iraq!! Now she got the guts to speak up about middle east after all her failed promises!! And even predicted that historians would comment kindly on Bush and Rice!! Waht a DISGRACE!!

sustainable cease-fire is nothing less than "we're going to sit back and allow our ally to bomb the hell out of some people that we care nothing about." i can hardly wait until the incompetent and embarrassing bush and his administration are out of office. he's the worst ever.