I’m beginning to find headlines like this (from the Hindustan Times, but it may as well have come from the New York Times) just plain humorous: “Palestinian official rejects Powell’s ‘provisional state’“:

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed on Thursday remarks by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in support of a ‘provisional’ Palestinian state.

Powell ‘should concentrate on the real thing: ending the Israeli occupation,’ Erekat said.

Powell advanced the idea of an interim Palestinian state on Wednesday, saying that ‘if it is going to be a state, it will have to have some structure … To have something that looks like territory, even though it may not be perfectly defined.’

Erakat said ‘we need a comprehensive withdrawal of the Israeli forces to the 1967 borders, according to UN resolutions 242 and 338, following which a sovereign Palestinian state will be established with Palestinian control over its borders and space and free movement’ of its citizens.

…In other words, a permanent staging point from which to begin the Pan Arab goal of driving Israel into the sea.

What neither Erakat nor Powell added — but which is understood perfectly everywhere outside of Powell’s head — is that the destruction of Israel is the goal of the majority of the Palestine people. Nothing less will do.

And so it’s comical to watch Powell trying to find some diplomatic middle ground between the full destruction of Israel and a sovereign Palestinian state that will agree to live beside Israel in peace. Because there is no middle ground, except in Powell’s head.

Until he realizes that, he’ll continue to look the fool — rebuffed by the likes of Saeb Erakat (who it seems has almost as little respect for Powell’s position as even I do).