"you'll be happy to hear..."

From The Guardian:  

Bush acknowledged that the checkpoints across the West Bank caused "massive frustrations" to the Palestinians. "You'll be happy to hear that my motorcade of 45 cars was able to make it through without being stopped but I'm not so exactly sure that's what happens to the average person," he said.

My friend Eric dropped me off near the King David Hotel yesterday, where I was to participate in a craft bazaar on behalf of the ICB, because no one with any Palestinian heritage was getting in or out of the West Bank.  It took us 15 minutes to get down there, and it took him an hour and a half to get back, because Israel closed Road 1 from Jerusalem to Ramallah, cutting Jerusalem in half and preventing people from getting across town.  Apparently it was too foggy to fly Marine One to Ramallah, so the presidential motorcade (which cars were imported from the US, along with 300 staff members, including housekeeping and catering staff to replace the hotel staff during his stay) drove up to Ramallah instead, while Jerusalem traffic sat at a standstill.

This is nuts.  I don't know if it's the president's security that mandates that all of these considerations be taken, or if it's the Israelis who arrange all this (for the sake of showing off, or as an excuse to harass Palestinians), but this is just NUTS.  It'll be a wonder if he ever gets invited back!

Full Guardian story here.

On the other hand, Bush did AGAIN call for a halt on settlement expansion, and Olmert AGAIN said okay, so maybe this time they'll mean it.