A Rare Glimpse of Good Sense, as Rice Heads to the Middle East

Every once in awhile we get a sense that Rice might have some competence when she stands up and goes against the grain of the Bush II legacy. Will Rice reign in the Israelis and bring them back to the negotiation table? No, I think this two will disappear in a flood of propaganda from Israel and a private rebuke from Bush.
Have you noticed Rice still talks about that "road map" that everyone has been calling dead for years? Nothing has changed.
New York Times

In a rare public rebuke to Israel, the Bush administration said Wednesday that an Israeli plan to construct a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank for the first time in 10 years could violate the terms of an American-backed peace proposal.


[...]“The U.S. calls on Israel to meet its road map obligations and avoid taking steps that could be viewed as pre-determining the outcome of final-status negotiations,” Mr. Gallegos told reporters.


For the Bush administration, which has shied away from criticizing Israel, the rebuke was so unusual that State Department officials took pains to assure reporters that it represented official policy and had been cleared by senior members of the administration.


The criticism was made as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to go to the Middle East early in 2007 to try to shore up support for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president.