http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3424958,00.html
***(Anyone have any theories on why this trip is REALLY being postponed for another month?)***
Rice to postpone next week’s Mideast trip
US official says stops in Jerusalem, Ramallah expected to be added to a trip secretary of state now plans in early August
Reuters
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has postponed a trip to the Middle East next week but will still visit Ghana and Portugal, a US official said on Thursday.
The US official, who asked not to be identified because the decision had not been announced, said the stops in Jerusalem and Ramallah were expected to be added to a Mideast trip Rice now plans in early August.
He said next week’s trip will be to Accra, Ghana, where Rice is to discuss trade and economic issues with African officials, and to Lisbon, where she will meet Portuguese officials and could attend a meeting of the “Quartet” of Middle East peace mediators, if one is scheduled.
Earlier, US President George W. Bush said he was sending Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Middle East in early August as he unveiled an interim US report showing mixed progress on security and political goals in Iraq.
Rice’s trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah will be her first to Israel and the Palestinian territories since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.
The Hamas victory has transformed the Palestinian political and security landscape and effectively divided the Palestinians between the West Bank, which is governed by President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, and Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.
Rice last visited Israel and the West Bank in March, when she announced that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas planned to meet every two weeks - a schedule the two politically weakened leaders were unable to meet.
I don’t have any theories.
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe she is afraid of bullets.
Interesting question, Mossad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/881689.html
Last update - 03:05 14/07/2007
U.S. issues warning to citizens against traveling to Israel, PA
By Reuters (excerpt)
The United States issued a fresh travel warning for Israel and the Palestinian territories on Friday to include American journalists and aid workers after a spate of violence and political instability.
In a notice that superseded a warning issued on Jan. 17, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to be mindful of security when considering travel to Israel, to defer trips to the West Bank and avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip.
“American citizens in the Gaza Strip should depart immediately, a recommendation that the State Department has maintained and renewed since the deadly roadside bombing of a U.S. Embassy convoy in Gaza on Oct. 15, 2003,” it said. . .
The travel warning said militant groups in Gaza continue to launch rockets against nearby Israeli towns and urged U.S. citizens to “exercise a high degree of caution” when going to restaurants, malls, places of worship and other public places.
“Israeli authorities are concerned about the continuing threat of suicide bombings,” it said. “The U.S. government has received information indicating that American interests could be the focus of terrorist attacks.”