Who's Doing What, Anyway?

Israeli officials have been complaining lately that King Hussein of Jordan is setting a "precondition" for talks by insisting that Israel should agree to refrain from settling the West Bank with Israelis while talks go on over the future of the territory.

Apparently these officials do not believe that Israel is setting any pre-conditions to talks by taking over Arab-owned land in the West Bank, building housing developments there at a record pace, and encouraging its Jewish citizens to settle there with a government-sponsored advertising campaign that is unprecedented in its intensity.

In other words, the Israeli officials are saying that Jordan's request not to change the status quo while discussions are carried out on how the status quo should be changed, is a pre-condition—but that Israel's actual change of the status quo prior to and during any talks over how the status quo should be changed is not a pre-condition.

If you got lost somewhere in that last paragraph, try the next one on to see if it fits:

Israel is acting like the mugger who tells you that he is willing to discuss the possibility of not robbing you after all, while he continues to go through your pockets to make sure that there aren't any loose bills or credit cards that he hasn't found yet.

We rest our case.