Bush: 'We are committed to the Road Map'

Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 8, 2003

[Asher]

Apr. 8, 2003

Bush: 'We are committed to the Road Map'

By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF

President George W. Bush said Tuesday that the US and Britain "are committed to the Road Map toward peace."

Speaking at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Hillsborough, Northern Ireland, Bush added: "Now this process must be carried forward."

Moments earlier Blair also reaffirmed Britain's commitment to the plan, which calls for achieving Palestinian statehood by 2005.

"It's a hopeful time. I believe we can make progress," Bush said.

Bush further said he is pleased with the designated Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas.

[honway]

purging Islamism from its midst once and for all.

How would this be accomplished?

[EternalVigilance]

You aren't offering any solutions other than Israel occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And I think the vast majority of the Arabs do act like civilized human beings, near as I can see. Last I checked, Israel was dealing with a handful of terrorists among millions of ordinary people.

Well, than you are willfully blind.

You aren't offering any solution to Arab intransigence and hatred. Therein lies the true source of 99% of the problems.

[onedoug]

I've long maintained that anyone with any demonstrable tie to terrorism should be deported, if not first killed in carrying it out. Those wishing to remain would be compelled to swear a loyalty oath to, and so enjoy the privleges of citizenship of the Jewish state.

I also do not believe that essentially surrounded by Arab states but for the Mediterranian Sea, that yet another Arab state should ever be established within Eretz Yisrael.

[honway]

enjoy the privleges of citizenship of the Jewish state

Israel is a democracy, including Jews, Arab Muslims, and Christians. Saying Israel is a Jewish state is like saying the U.S. is a Christian state. Do you believe you live in a Christian state?

Do you believe when Jews are the minority in Israel it will be a Jewish state?

[honway]

I've long maintained that anyone with any demonstrable tie to terrorism should be deported

Where would you deport them to? What if no other country is prepared to accept your deportees? Purging an ethnic group is a very slippery slope. I am not sure people in the U.S. would be interested in sending billions of their tax dollars annually to Israel if there was purging occurring in Israel.

[honway]

Accepting refugees was never the crux of the idea

Let me see, we more than triple the size of Jordan and give them the Iraqi oil fields and they can't find a place for the refugees living in the camps in Israel? In that case, I would recommend another partner in the rebuilding of Iraq.

[SJackson]

Don't forget the quartet has discussed a budget of $25-$30 billion (mostly US $) to resettle and compensate the refugees in whatever "state" might emerge, so there's plenty of financial incentive as well. I was simply noting that the potential stability gained by restoring the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq was viewed as the primary advantage, not the settlement of refugees. It has been noted however that regardless of the number of refugees opting to settle there, the palestinian percentage of an expanded Jordan would decline, an plus for Jordan.

Interestingly I haven't seen this option discussed for about 6 months till the last paragraphs of this article The post-war map-scenarios for the post-Iraqi war situation (Iraq-US-Israel Axis of Evil?) today.

[rmlew]

They have rockets. That is artillary.

[rmlew]

Saying Israel isa Jewish state is like saying that that Denmark is a Danish states.
It is teh ethnic core of the state.

Do you reject the right of states to have an ethnic core?

[honway]

Do you reject the right of states to have an ethnic core?

Not necessarily. It just seems so politically incorrect to describe America as a white anglo-saxon protestant state. Are you comfortable with it?

[garbanzo]

It would be nice if Jordan absorbed the west bank and gaza, but it's not likely to happen. The reality is that some sort of (second) Palestinian state is the only realistic option at the moment.

[Sabertooth]

It would be nice if Jordan absorbed the west bank and gaza, but it's not likely to happen.

They did before, and used the land to attack Israel. They don't deserve a second chance.

The reality is that some sort of (second) Palestinian state is the only realistic option at the moment.

This is not the least bit true. There is no paper based peace plan which rewards and encourages genocidal "palestinian" terror that is in any way realistic.

The realistic solution here is war.

[Piranha]

It is more reasonable to resettle Muslim Arabs in Muslim Arab countries. I am not talking about all Muslim Arabs. The Muslim Arabs who are citizens of Israel, of course, should stay within Israel. The Muslim Arabs who live in the West Bank and are citizens of Jordan I think should be able to stay in their homes, with Jordanian (East Palestinian) citizenship, provided that they don't act in a way that is inconsistent with their recognition of Israel's existence.

However, there are millions of Palestinian refugees who left the land that became the state of Israel in 1948, who live -- to this day! With their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren!! -- as stateless refugees. Their refugee camps happen to be located in the west bank (for example, the camp in Jenin that Israel raided in April-May 2002). Those people, I suggest, should be repatriated to Jordan and given citizenship in the real Arab Palestinian state.

By the way, did you read that the Jenin camp renamed its "town square" after the first suicide bomber against the Americans in Iraq?

[Piranha]

"Do you believe the solution is resettling the 3 million Palestinians to Jordan?If the answer is yes, and Jordan rejects the idea, what should we do next?"

Not all of them. Just the stateless refugees whose camps happen to be in the west bank. Jordan shouldn't be entitled to reject the idea. The Jordanians are Palestinian Arabs, just as the west bank Arab refugees are. Both Israel and Jordan were carved out of British Palestine. This is fair and equitable.

[Piranha]

Thank you for the refugee list. That's very interesting. Taking the "refugees" out of the west bank and Jordan would move 1.3 million of the claimed 3 million Palestinian Arabs out of Israel.

By the way, I wonder how many people who post here are aware that roughly an equivalent number of Jews from Arab countries were expelled from those countries (or left under extreme duress) during the same period. All were resettled, mostly in the US, UK, France and Israel, and none has refugee status.

[Piranha]

Wow, carton253. Thanks for the massive research. You must have written on this before.

[Gal.5:1]

Pres. Bush--Drop the road map on the floor and back away verrrry slooooowly.

[rmlew]

I wrote
"Do you reject the right of states to have an ethnic core?"

Honway responded
"Not necessarily. It just seems so politically incorrect to describe America as a white anglo-saxon protestant state. Are you comfortable with it? "

I'm not simply because it is no longer true.
We were a WASP country until the 1960's. The demographic and cultural suicide of the WASP ethnarchy began a century ago and the tipping point came in the 1960's. Kennedy was elected and the "white ethnics" began to take over. Meanwhile the WASP elite stopped believeing in itself. The Immigration acts of the 1960's were the coup de grasse.
Even if you define WASP to include all British protestants and the decendenats of other whites here before 1800, they have been a minority for a generation.

I wish we still were a WASP country.

[happygrl]

Newbie, don't come here with your insults against gentiles.

There are those of us gentiles here who are more adament advocates for Israel than many liberal Jews.