RICE THOUGHT ABBAS WAS WEAK AND INEFFECTIVE. (UPDATED) Apparently, in the beginning Condoleezza Rice had the same opinion of Abbas as the rest of us:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thought Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a weak disappointment, and she once judged President Bush's signature Mideast peace program unworkable, according to a new biography.

Months into her term as secretary of state in 2005, Rice considered Abbas "a nice man but ineffective," and she worried Abbas was unworthy of the investment in trust and money the U.S. had placed in him, the book says.

At the time, Bush and Rice were publicly trying to bolster Abbas as the more palatable alternative to the late Yasser Arafat. Despite qualms about Abbas, the administration hoped that Bush's second term might see gains in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy" attributes Rice's judgments on Abbas to interviews with anonymous administration officials, but her reported views closely track those of outside observers at the time. [emphasis added]

Whatever it is that caused Rice to do a 180, now she is stuck with supporting an admittedly weak and ineffective leader--and so are we.

UPDATE: This is all assuming, of course, that what the author, Glenn Kessler--journalist for The Washington Post--writes on that point is accurate. For instance, according to a preview of the book, Kessler claims:

"The invasion of Iraq, the missed opportunity with Iran, the breach in relations with Europe, the Arab anger at a perceived bias against the Palestinians -- all of these problems were the direct result of decisions she helped make in the White House," he writes.

While it is gratifying to know that Kessler does not seem to blame Israel for the invasion of Iraq, to claim that Arab anger is the result of Rice's actions--or Bush's for that matter--is silly, as is ascribing the current situation in Iran 'directly' to Rice, as opposed to, let's say, Jimmy Carter--or to Carter's Zbigniew Brzezinski, who endorsed this book. See the critique of the book at Blogcritics Magazine.

It's good that there is a book out there that critiques Rice's role in the Middle East--I'm just not sure that Glenn Kessler's is the one I should rely on.

Technorati Tag: Condoleezza Rice and Abbas.