Posted on 07/16/2007 11:55:23 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday announced an an international conference this fall to include Israel, the Palestinian authority and some of their Arab neighbors to help restart Mideast peace talks and review progress in building democratic institutions.
He said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would preside over the session. Bush said the conference would include representatives from Israel, the Palestinians "and their neighbors in the region" and said participants would include just those governments that support creation of a Palestinian state.
Bush also pledged increased U.S. aid to the Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas and called for the convening of a meeting of "donor" nations to consider more international aid, including the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.
Bush said the past few years had see "some hopeful, some dispiriting" changes in the Middle East. And he called the present time "a moment of clarity for all Palestinians. And now comes a moment of choice."
Bush voiced strong support for Abbas and his moderate Fatah government. Abbas controls just the West Bank after the Islamic militant group Hamas gained authority over Gaza in June.
He said Abbas and his new prime minister, Salam Fayyad, "are striving to build the institutions of a modern democracy."
Bush contrasted his government with Hamas, which he said "has demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is devoted to extremism and murder."
Only the Palestinians can decide which of these two paths to follow, Bush said.
He noted that the United States has pledged more than $190 million in direct assistance to the Palestinians, most of it already approved and that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a quasi-governmental unit, was making another $228 million available in loan guarantees.
Administration officials said that Bush would await recommendations from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair before deciding whether asking Congress for more.
Blair was recently named as special envoy to the region by the "Quartet" of Mideast peace makers — the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia.
That group meets in Portugal on Thursday, at which time Rice and other international negotiators will meet with Blair as he begins his new assignment. Snow said that Bush had discussed his new proposals with Blair.
Which will wind up about as successful as every other Mideast Peace Conference before it.
President Bush walks away from the podium after delivering remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian Issues, Monday, July 16, 2007, in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington. The president, taking on a more active role in the Mideast conflict, is offering new financial support to embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' government. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Its a war of annihilation. Annoucing a ‘peace conference’ at this time is more about trying to change the national topic from the fact the borders aren’t secured to this day, and this administration isn’t going to do anything about it.
Another day lost, Mr President.
I guess Munich 1938 was a “Peace Conference” as well.
The Mideast talks are dead Jim. Put the defibrillator away, your wasting electricity.
I doubt he actually thinks it will do any good, which is why I’m suggesting they announced this to ‘change the natioinal subject’.
The only thing it does is cause one to consider the sanity of those thinking this stuff up.
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Ya never know. I'll be curious to see who shows up.
Get your self a new hobby horse. The one you're kicking is dead.
You mean that towards the administration?
This is it, let those in Judea flee, this is the peace treaty. Doom and Destruction are at your doorstep America ...
What a pathetic waste of time.
It may have been a bit of thread hijacking, but if anyone thinks that horse is dead, better go recheck the stables...
You can never tell when somebody drops a cryptic comment on any given thread.
The United States should not be brokering peace in Israel, unless after it gives back all the Land the Lord has given her. The Lord will not be mocked, we are like a small child playing with a loaded gun, we do not understand what we do.
Riiiiight.....
Who’s the caterer?
Not everything has to do with illegal immigration. It's stupid to filter everything through that lens.
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