Gordon Smith

Here’s something you don’t read every day—straight talk about the Arab-Israeli conflict:

U.S. Senator Tells Arabs to Focus on Home. (Hat tip: LGF)

Gordon Smith, a Republican senator from Oregon, said the peace process aimed at bringing about an independent Palestinian state is unlikely to win serious backing from the Bush administration without a demonstration of commitment from both sides.
“Until we have someone on the other side who is willing to say ‘Yes,’ we’re not going to continue to prostitute the American presidency to people who aren’t serious,” said Smith, one of six U.S. congressmen who attended the forum. “It’s a mystery to me why Arab countries can’t work on their own countries before Palestine is fixed,” he added.
“Obviously one of the greatest commitments that we have is to the Jewish people and the state of Israel, to try and manage the difficult process of the peace there and securing that nation, and doing so in a way that, if possible, is just to the Palestinians,” Smith told a panel that included Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, top officials from Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as academics from Iran and Turkey.

ABC News doesn’t describe the audience reaction, but I don’t think it was a standing ovation.