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Curzon
Author

Curzon

Date

October 7th, 2005

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C’mon now

A BBC documentary has a lengthy interview with a Palestinian negotiator who claims that President George Bush told him God instructed him to invade Iraq and create a Palestinian state.

BBC? Palestinian? Two-years of bitter memory? Hearsay? If you buy that, I have one long-ass bridge for you.

UPDATE: Some remember it slightly differently:

Mr Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, recounts how the president told him: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state.”

Comments to this entry

Joe
October 7, 2005
4:21 pm
Maybe Chirol can shed some light on this, but could it have been a translation issue between English and Arabic? "Religious obligation" and "instruction from God" aren't that far apart in many people's minds... especially devout Muslims. I'm interested to know how the phrases would differ in Arabic translation.
Younghusband
October 7, 2005
8:37 pm
"More from the BBC":http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/06/bush.shtml. This seems like people taking stuff a bit to literal to me...
Younghusband
October 7, 2005
8:52 pm
"See!":http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4320586.stm
Curzon
October 8, 2005
5:38 am
Yup. The Palestinian in question is saying the BBC took his words out of context:

Nabil Shaath said he and other world leaders at a Jordan summit two years ago did not believe Mr Bush thought God had given him a personal message.


Damned "Biased BBC!!":http://www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com/
Chirol
October 10, 2005
11:04 am
I have a feeling this has more to do with the "telephone game" syndrome than translation, however I must admit that a year of Arabic isn't really enough for me to offer any real linguistic insight. Sorry! However, there have been a number of these type of stories about Bush such as the alleged case of him asking the Brazilian president "Do you have blacks?" which was a myth.
radi
October 18, 2005
4:21 am
Well I am fluent in arabic and can tell you what Mahmoud Abbas and Nabeel Shaath said:

Mahmoud Abbas talked about the founding of the palestinian state, he reassured him that it was moraly his obligation, and relegiously as a god-fearing man.

Nabeel Shaath Said that on two occasions bush spoke of a divine message to him, one that he was instructed by God to free the Iraqis and two that he was instructed later on to create a palestinian state.

As a man knowlegable of the PLO and their leaders, I wouldn't trust Shaath but I would believe Abbas.