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Well it looks like Scarborough has done a pretty good job hitting back at Mika's dad huh? Not so fast my friend. You see there was one thing that Mr Brzezinski kept repeating at the end of the segment, "look up Taba". He even spelled it out for Scarborough, T-A-B-A. But curiously all Scarborough could come up with is the word of some of his hactackular buddies and a Newsweek story about Bill Clinton trying to cover his ass by throwing Arafat under the bus. He never even attempted to explain what Mika's dad meant about the Taba negotiations. Funny thing about that though, turns out there is quite a bit about the Taba Summit you can find with a simple google search. When I put the word Taba in, this is how many articles were listed.
Results 1 - 10 of about 62,800 for taba negotiations. (0.06 seconds)
So I figured why not use the handy wikipedia page that talks about the Taba Summit. Here is some of what I found...
The Taba summit (also known as Taba Summit, Taba Talks, Taba Conference, Taba, or permanent status talks at Taba) were talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, held from January 21 to January 27, 2001 at Taba in the Sinai peninsula. They were peace talks aimed at reaching the "final status" negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and came closer to reaching a final settlement than any previous or subsequent peace talks yet ultimately failed to achieve its goals.
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The summit took place against the backdrop of the failed Camp David 2000 Summit between Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak and the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and a Palestinian Intifada that commenced against Israel.
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There is a European Union (EU) unofficial report about the Taba talks (see complete full text here: [1], or in 5 parts in Haaretz: [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]). Although the paper has no official status, it has been acknowledged by the parties as being a relatively fair description of the outcome of the negotiations on the permanent status issues at Taba. It draws attention to the extensive work which had been undertaken on all permanent status issues like territory, Jerusalem, refugees and security in order to find ways to come to joint positions. At the same time it shows that there remained serious gaps and differences between the two sides, which will have to be overcome in future negotiations.
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In fact Barak went even further, in a February 8, 2001 statement [8] released by Barak's media advisor he communicated to newly inaugurated President George W. Bush as follows:
Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak clarified this evening that the ideas which were brought up in the course of the recent negotiations conducted with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, including those raised at the Camp David Summit and by President Clinton towards the end of his term in office, are not binding on the new government to be formed in Israel. In a letter to President George Bush, Prime Minister Barak stated that his government had done the utmost to bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that these efforts did not bear fruit, primarily because of a lack of sufficient readiness for compromise on the part of the Palestinian leadership...Before sending the letter, Barak spoke with former President Clinton, and they were in agreement that the ideas raised in the past months are not binding on the new government in Israel. Prime Minister Barak intends to convey this position also to the heads of the European Union and to Chairman Arafat.
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The reasons for impasse are highly disputed.
The breakdown is often attributed to the political circumstances posed by Israeli elections and changeover in leadership in the United States:[9] They had run out of political time. They couldn't conclude an agreement with Clinton now out of office and Barak standing for reelection in two weeks. "We made progress, substantial progress. We are closer than ever to the possibility of striking a final deal," said Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's negotiator. Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator, said, "My heart aches because I know we were so close. We need six more weeks to conclude the drafting of the agreement."
Evidence to support this view is provided by David Matz in the Palestine - Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture[10] concerning a joint statement.[7] He notes that, "The Taba negotiation began on Sunday evening, January 21, and ended on Saturday afternoon, January 27 [2001]. At the closing press conference, the parties issued this joint statement: 'The sides declare that they have never been closer to reaching an agreement and it is thus our shared belief that the remaining gaps could be bridged with the resumption of negotiations following the Israeli election'."
Uri Avnery of the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom attributed the failure to Barak, claiming that[11]: "It was not Arafat who broke off the talks at this critical moment, when the light at the end of the tunnel was clearly visible to the negotiators, but Barak. He ordered his men to break off and return home."
So you see, not only was Joe Scarborough wrong. He was TOTALLY and UNEQUIVICALLY wrong on all counts. Yet he continues to be willfully ignorant of that plain and simple fact. He spent 10 minutes trying to rag on Mr Brzezinski when any 8 year old with a computer could look up Taba as Mika's dad instructed him to and shown him the error of his ways. I can't wait for Mr. Brzezinski to go back on the show and PWN him all over again because sometimes you just have to keep hitting a dumb ass upside the head until he learns to listen. That he tried to smear the man while his daughter and co host was sitting right beside him says a lot about Scarborough's character and he deserves everything that is coming to him when Mr Brzezinski sees him again.
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he needs to be impaled on nyt and wapost cites!
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