She can't kick the habit. For some it's drink, for others it's tobacco, but for our secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, it's Israel. The figures I get show that Condi visits Israel about once every two months - and it's not for fun in the sun. On her trip to Israel in May, she insisted that Israel must hand over its "vital strategic assets" to Arab sovereignty.


To many of us, Israel is itself a "vital strategic asset," and maybe that's exactly what the lady had in mind so far

Georgia (what's left of it) must now pay the price for Condi's one-track mind.

as what to "hand over."


Condi can't help herself. She wants Israel on a platter. Israel, of course, is always ready to give. Like Trenton -- Israel Makes, The World Takes.


Just the other day, Ehud Olmert was set to release some 200 terrorists just to prove how high he'll jump when Condi says "jump."


Vladimir Putin, however, is no Olmert. Putin won't get pushed around, and after so many years practicing and prancing on Israel, this must have come as a shock to Condi, who wasn't used to getting "no" for an answer. Thus, as she binged on Israel, Condi forgot the rest of the world, namely Russia.


Georgia (what's left of it) must now pay the price for Condi's one-track mind. True, all that may have happened anyway, but had Condi spent as much time at the Kremlin as she did in Jerusalem, perhaps we wouldn't be facing Cold War Part Two. After all, isn't that what the State Department is for -- to read the signals from all around the world and to intervene when there's trouble ahead?


We call this diplomacy. Instead, Russia invaded Georgia with our eyes wide open, or perhaps this took place as Condi slept, blinded by her intoxication on Israel.


There are some 50 hot spots around the world, places like Pakistan versus India, real heavyweights that are on the verge of war and that could plunge us all into (further) chaos, and which already have us in the throes of economic terrorism - like $4.00 for a gallon of gas, leading to the R-word, recession. Meantime, here goes Condi, off to Israel once again!


The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles features an article by David Suissa who writes about a visit to his synagogue by a man, Adam Akabar, who survived Darfur. That's where Arab Muslims have been on a murdering spree against non-Arab Muslims. Akabar told his story to the congregation, but was reluctant to show the pictures. Too gruesome. Suissa's article is an open letter to Condoleezza Rice and, in part, this is what he says:


"I don't understand, for example, how you could go to the Middle East 21 times over the past few years, and agonize for weeks on end on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over things like roadblocks, building permits and border crossings, and, while millions of Darfurians are going through a historical genocide, [you] make only one short, ineffective trip in four years to that part of the world."


But some of us do understand. We know that Condi's predecessors in the State Department have had a grudge against Israel from the day it was reborn in May of 1948 - Arabs In, Jews Out. This explains Condi's visit (to Israel, of course) last May when Israel was trying to relax and enjoy its 60th anniversary. Did Condi arrive with blessings?


Are you kidding?


She used the occasion to demand that Israel concede and withdraw and "hand over" every "vital strategic asset."


All that to make sure that there will be no 61st anniversary.


President George W. Bush, however, arrived with blessings, telling the Knesset, "The source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book." Getting entirely

We can hope that the next administration will bring along someone who will learn from all this.

Biblical, Bush noted that "Israel is the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David - a homeland for the chosen people of Eretz Yisrael."


Few people realize the everlasting power of those words, that speech, which, from the lips of an American president, dispels any notion of dual loyalties. Instead, we now have a doctrine of shared loyalty or even twin loyalty. This, to my mind, is huge, and gives comfort to Jews in America and to Jews in Israel, in addition to Christians who truly love Zion.


Too bad, however, that Bush gave over his foreign policy to a woman who is so bigoted that she forgot that the entire world is a "vital strategic asset."


We can hope that the next administration will bring along someone who will learn from all this. I am not hopeful. So let us pray.


Jack Engelhard's latest novel, The Bathsheba Deadline, now in paperback, places journalism at the center of our war on terror. Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. He can be reached at his website www.jackengelhard.com.