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OK. So Bush uses the words of Moses speaking to the children of Israel as part of a statement demanding that Arabs operate a certain way.
In that way, I pick "D" of the choices above. Bush has basically given the Palestinians his long laundry list of what they'd need to do before statehood was on the table... and backed it up with Jewish scripture. Chance of Palestinians taking that seriously: damn near zero, am I wrong?
So then, why was Arafat's response positive?
A) He was listening to a translator, who got the soaring Palestinian praise right and the demand that Arafat not be in office wrong
B) He knows his time is up and these are words of tired resignation
C) He's pissed as hell and will indicate his true feelings in Arabic, perhaps at the next Hamas Board of Directors meeting
D) He's a sickly, senile, doddering old man who didn't remember the entire speech anyway
E) He was planning to have elections soon and figures that if he can make them look legit, the world won't care about the other demands
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