Posted on 01/10/2005 8:29:14 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday he would welcome newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, extending an invitation he refused to offer to the late Yasser Arafat.
Bush said he was heartened by the Palestinian elections and offered his congratulations to Abbas, who was elected by a landslide.
"I look forward to welcoming him here to Washington if he chooses to come here," the president said, talking with reporters in the Oval Office.
The U.S. president also said on Monday that Israel must continue to support the vision of a two-state solution, meet its obligations, and pull out of the territories, Israel Radio reported.
European countries also welcomed Abbas' election as a sign Palestinians want to reform their government and find a negotiated solution with Israel.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the peaceful vote was "a victory for democracy, a first victory for peace."
"No incident, a strong turnout: It's a proof of responsibility and maturity that the Palestinians have given," Barnier was quoted as telling French daily newspaper Le Parisien.
Barnier said the new president's first task "will be to reorganize the services of the Palestinian Authority as Yasser Arafat promised to do, in order to increase security guarantees for the Palestinians as well as for Israel."
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said his country and other European nations would do everything possible to help Abbas create an "independent, viable and democratic" Palestinian state.
"I trust that the Palestinian people will follow the path you have chosen of renouncing violence and carrying out comprehensive reforms," Schroeder wrote in a telegram to Abbas, whom he invited to visit Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent a message to the Palestinian leader, looking forward to cooperation on achieving "a just Palestinian-Israeli settlement on the basis of the Road Map (peace plan) and resolutions of the UN Security Council..
"I am sure that your example of political experience will permit you to effectively perform the lofty mission entrusted to you by the Palestinian people," Putin wrote, according to his press office.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw congratulated Abbas after he won a landslide victory in the vote to replace the late Yasser Arafat, who led the Palestinian movement for four decades.
"The Palestinian people have already demonstrated their commitment to democracy," Straw told a news conference. "The challenge now is for the new president to use his mandate to lay the foundations for a new Palestinian state."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair planned to speak to Abbas by phone later Monday, Blair's official spokesman said. The two politicians met last month in Ramallah to discuss a March 1-2 conference in London on rebuilding Palestinian institutions.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the Abbas victory "adds to the credibility of the peace process."
"The elections went well. We await the final outcome" that pivots on a 'Road Map' peace plan drawn up by the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations, said Barroso.
The EU deployed some 200 election observers for the Palestinian vote in its largest election monitoring program ever. The operation cost $18.3 million.
Austria's foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, called Abbas' election "an encouraging step toward peace" in the Middle East.
International affairs expert Rime Allaf in London predicted that Abbas' victory would do little to increase the European Union's role in resolving the Middle East conflict, after years of being sidelined by Israel and the United States.
"The only new thing that Abbas brings for the Europeans is the chance to tell the United States and Israel that they have lost their excuse for not talking with the Palestinians, i.e. Arafat," said Allaf, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, which is also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
"Pretty much all they can do is pressure the United States to be more equitable," Allaf added.
Abbas' victory was front-page news on each of Spain's dailies and the lead item on radio and TV news.
"The good sense of the Palestinians has won," the conservative daily ABC said in an editorial Monday. "The victory of Mahmoud Abbas by such a wide margin of votes over his opponents, and the failure of the boycott by radical groups who tried to sabotage the elections, opens up a scenario of hope and possibilities for a people in need of peace and stability."
The Times of London said that Abbas, a pragmatist, understood the importance of ending Palestinian violence before talks with Israel can begin.
"He must make clear that there will be no further Arafat-style fudges, making token arrests and cracking down for a few days only to release the militants when the immediate crisis has passed," the paper wrote. But it also urged Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The Guardian, another British daily, said the "new president has a mountain to climb" in tackling the many Palestinians who back Hamas.
As I wrote in a similar article moments ago:
There has never been a palestinian state, kingdom, king, or capital.
Before 1948 the area was rooled by the British, and before them by the Turks, and so on.
After 1948 west bank was Jordan and Gaza was Egypt. In 1967 Israel fought for its existnace once again and took control over the JORDANIAN west bank and the EGYPTIAN gaza strip and Sinai desert (and Golan heights of Syria).
There is no reason for a palestinian state on the Israeli land.
Its an absoord that so many leaders buy this islamic jihad stuff.
Their state is Jordan.
70% of the Jordanians are palestinians. They can all go and live there, or ask the Egyptians for the Sinai desert's empty wasteland (a land 2.5 times larger than the state of Israel) so they coould do something with the wasteland.
But Jordan doesnt care from the "palestinians" neither does Egypt.
Do you want to know who are the "palestinians"? Here you go:
Unfashionable Facts About the Middle East
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation-state in 1312 B.C, 2,000 years before the rise of Islam, and was a nation before that.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C., the Jews have had dominion over the land for 1,000 years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The Romans introduced the word Palestine as a way to expunge the name Judea from the map-a punishment for the Bar Kochba rebellion suppressed in 135 C.E.
The Arabs conquered Palestine in 635 AD, stealing it from its legitimate Jewish rulers, who had evicted the Byzantines while being led by a woman general, one Hefzibah, who then restored Jewish sovereignty. Palestine was stolen from the Jews by the Arabs and not the other way around. Arab sovereignty over Palestine ended in 1071 when the area was conquered by Seljuk Turks. “Palestinian” Arabs never held sovereignty over “Palestine” and cannot even pronounce the name of their supposed “homeland”. They cannot say “Palestine”.
There has never been a Palestinian (Arab or Muslim) king, there has never been a Palestinian capital, there has never been a Palestinian kingdom or state.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein on March 31, 1977:
Quote: "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."
End of Quote.
I remind you that this was a quote from PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein on March 31, 1977.
Those are the "palestinians".
What a crock. The world is always watching and only criticizes Israel and America. Trying to appease "the world" will never work and only lead to dead Americans and Israelis. Bush should not shake hands with a man who has the blood of Americans and Israelies on his hands.
" The world is always watching and only criticizes Israel and America. Trying to appease "the world" will never work and only lead to dead Americans and Israelis. Bush should not shake hands with a man who has the blood of Americans and Israelies on his hands."
Right-on, very well said!
I'm agin' it. Seriously, why must Bush meet with an out of the closet terrorist supporter?
The Mexican majority might remember him that way. Legitimate Americans will not. If he manages to get the Fair Tax made law, I might reconsider. But, so far, he has only proved himself to be better than the Democrat alternative.
Typical third party voter or Buchanan supporters whining.
Take a look at post # 46.
For sure I do not want to belong to the mental institution of insanely delusional people who vote for 3rd loser party and think they achieve any thing significant.
Just another foolish attempt by an American Administration to put a square peg in a round hole. Doomed to fail before it starts.
Yes it will because those who whine about everything the President does won't be the ones writing the history. Those who use "Michael Moore 6th Grade Logic" whether they're on the right or on the left will never have their views accepted except by the few who hold the same ideals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.