Posted on 01/10/2008 1:44:39 PM PST by Wiz
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, hardening his tone towards Israel on Thursday, urged an end to "the occupation" of the West Bank and pushed for a peace treaty to be signed within a year to create a Palestinian state.
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The United States rarely uses the politically charged word "occupation" to describe Israel's hold on lands captured in a 1967 war. It is a term Palestinians seeking a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip employ frequently to describe their plight.
"The establishment of the state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it," Bush said in a statement he read to reporters in a Jerusalem hotel.
Bush's language, after he traveled to the West Bank city of Ramallah past Israeli checkpoints and settlements, could cause political pain to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose right-wing coalition partners usually bridle at such remarks.
"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," Bush said. He had earlier met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and visited Bethlehem, also in the West Bank.
Bush pressed the Palestinians to rein in militants. He said any negotiations must also ensure Israel has "secure, recognized and defensible borders" alongside a "viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent" Palestine.
Challenging skeptics of his new push for peace on the first U.S. presidential visit to Ramallah, he told a news conference with Abbas: "I believe it's going to happen, that there will be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office."
An Israeli official said Bush's remarks were the basis for moving forward with negotiations.
"We accept them. We see them as consistent with understandings with the Americans and as a positive foundation for moving forward," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
IMO Rice has been implementing Bush policy from day one.
I would like to think she’s smarter than this, but it may be that they both have their heads...
Well, it’s a shame at any rate.
Maybe El Presidente Jorge Bush will call the Israelis “vigilantes” for wanting to preserve their culture and their very existence against Islamic genocide as he called Americans for wanting to secure our borders and preserve our culture and rule of law. The last two Presidencies are the best example of why Presidents should only serve one term and the Senate, Congress, and Supreme Court be term limited.
He must first remove the ones he's put into our own.
Bush is a disgrace to America and to Christianity! He should resign, immediately, or be Impeached!
That speech might come soon. Give it another couple weeks or so.
>>>>Can this President get any more disappointing????
Some pundit said last year that GWB was trying to drive his approval rating right down to zero before leaving office.
I thought he might make one more push for a stealth Amnesty bill, but it looks like the lights have already been turned off at the White House.
BTTT!
Conveniently Bush decided that he would only go back so far in Israel's history to determine who the occupiers are.
George and Condi need to consider what happened to Sharon
after he ordered end of the occupation of Gush Kativ and Gaza.
One week before Katrina made landfall, Israel carried out the evacuation of 9,500 residents from Gush Katif and four Samaria communities. But Bush persists.....
I wouldn’t put it past him. If he loathes his own citizens enough to insult them in that manner, I doubt he’d hold of on Israeli Citizens.
If only Israel want pander to those murdering thugs just a little more, we will finally have peace.....not! Bush is an idiot on this.
>>>>>He must first remove the ones he’s put into our own.
Not to mention his own back.
It’s now to the point where I *expect* him to do the thing most offensive to conservatives.
George and Condi need to come home and let them settle things themselves........thereby keeping us out of it.
I’d like to know........for whom is Bush a puppet???????
I don't mean to be rude, but I can't believe you're saying that.
barf alert?
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