Bush Tells Mubarak Will Work for Palestinian State

CAIRO (Reuters) - President Bush called Egypt's president on Tuesday to underline his commitment in his second term to working toward a Palestinian state, Egyptian state media said.

Bush outlined a Middle East peace plan supporting the creation of a Palestinian state in June 2002, but only once the Palestinian people dumped their president, Yasser Arafat.

Arafat's fate was mired in confusion on Tuesday as French doctors contradicted reports by senior Palestinian officials that the veteran leader had died at a Paris hospital.

Bush, re-elected for a second term last week, called Arafat an obstacle to peace. Since sidelining him two years ago, Bush's administration has made only sporadic attempts to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.

Egyptian state media said Bush had phoned President Hosni Mubarak, who is a regular mediator in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, to discuss steps he would take to "cooperate more actively" with Middle East peacemaking.

"Bush underlined that he would work toward the complete implementation of his vision of a settlement with the establishment of two states, Palestinian and Israeli, living together in peace and security," state media said.

Mubarak said this week he thought Washington would engage more closely in Middle East peacemaking in Bush's second term.

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and invading Afghanistan and Iraq had distracted the United States from Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking in his first term, he said.

As it has been said, the problem was never really Arafat, it was and continues to be the Palestinian Authority terrorist regime and the cult of death which encompasses most of the Arab population in the specified areas. No peace will be achieved through their lies in English. The only thing which will result will be more dead Israelis.

I hate to see more years wasted trying to make something happen that will never be.

Its dangerous to make predictions, when time will reveal the answer, but I am convinced that there will never be an independent West Bank. Separate from Jordan, separate from Israel, it has no chance of being anything more than what it has become, a lawless enclave led by lawless men.

Separate from Israel, separate from Jordan, what is the basis of its economy? Handouts from the EU, from the UN, from Saudi charities, smuggling, terror, and what else?

Separate from Israel, separate from Jordan, what are its markets? Apart from death and hatred, what does it produce? What does it propose to produce?

The only solution is for Israel to draw a defensible line, and offer the rest for administration from Jordan. Amman can either take up its responsibility for their citizens in the West Bank, or receive them as refugees. Their choice.

The Gaza is marginally more viable, simply because it has a seacoast. But, again, separate from Egypt it is a land without a rationale for existence. As a separate enclave it is only going to be a threat to Israel and a source of misery for its miserable people. Again, Israel must draw a defensible line, and either Egypt accepts responsibility for Gaza's residents within Gaza, or as refugees.

But there will never be an independent West Bank.

This is all bullshirt. An IDF guy laughed at Egypt's offer to help with the peace process today. He said "The Egyptians said they had no idea where the tunnels that the weapons smuggling were coming out on their side of the border so we said fine, we will take care of it. When we blew the tunnels the smoke came out of their police stations and military bases. One of the tunnels was big enough to drive an 18 wheeler through."

Egypt is not going to solve the problem, Egypt IS the problem. Islamic Jihad is their army!

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