Free Republic

Hollywood actor Richard Gere joined some 30 Nobel Laureates for a gathering of the world's top thinkers in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. The conference, bringing together luminaries such as former peace prize winner the Dalai Lama, has set itself the none too modest task of finding solutions to the world's problems. "A process begins here -- a process that all of you will shape -- and by your effort, help shape our world," host King Abdullah II of Jordan said in his opening speech. Highlighting the conflict in the Middle East, he said the world needed to make...

July 25, 2003, 9:50 a.m. Last Stop on the Oslo Road? Deciphering W.’s vision. By Barbara Lerner hy did he do it? Why did George W. Bush go to Aqaba and agree to do his best to implement the Four Powers roadmap? Why is he following through assiduously, hosting Abu Mazen Friday and Sharon again next week? The roadmap is this year's version of the Oslo plan to produce "peace in the Middle East" by creating a 23rd Arab state called Palestine. This idea has been the driving force, the unquestioned idee fixe of American policy in the region for...

As far as friends of Israel are concerned, the history of the presidency of George W. Bush will be divided into two parts: pre-Aqaba and post-Aqaba. Prior to the summit last week at which Bush formally launched his "road map" to peace in a scorching desert photo op, centrist and right-wing American Jews saw Bush as their hero. His June 24, 2002 speech enunciated principles of peace that they had longed to hear for decades. Bush demanded that the Palestinians renounce terror, and throw out their corrupt and murderous leadership before they could even hope for a state alongside Israel....

It’s hard not to like George W. Bush, and opinion polls in the United States show that most people do. He has changed the world for the good, and while no one expects perfection, there are times when falling short can make the rest of what he does matter much less. Last week, he focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict showing little appreciation of what had gone before and in doing that he made himself vulnerable and involved himself in something that could diminish much of what he’s done elsewhere. Opinion writer Charles Krauthammer thinks that the United States put its...

<p>It was, by any measure, a productive week for President Bush. He has started to repair ruptured relations in Europe, spurred the Middle East leaders to get tougher with terrorism, and put Israel and the Palestinians on a rocky "road map" that could lead to peace.</p>

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas seemed uncomfortable in the official meetings with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, and President George W. Bush at their summit in Aqaba, Jordan, last week. So Bush stepped in and did what he does best: he schmoozed. Leaving aides and interpreters behind, the President took the two leaders outside, where they sat under the shade of palm trees for 40 minutes and discussed ways to give a fresh start to the peace process. "I wanted...to observe the interplay between the two," Bush said later. "Did they have the capacity to relax in each other's presence?...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) said Sunday that he is keen on pursuing talks with Hamas and other Palestinian groups with the hope of avoiding a civil war. Speaking at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Abbas said many Palestinians misunderstood his speech at the Aqaba summit in Jordan last week. It seems that the Aqaba speech has been misunderstood," Abbas said. He said he would clarify his position on this matter later. There is no other way but to continue the dialogue [with the Palestinian factions]," he stressed. This is the only way...

Five Israelis and five Palestinians were killed Sunday in two Palestinian-initiated attacks on Israeli targets in, the first at an IDF post near the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip, and later at the Machpela Cave in Hebron on the West Bank. Four IDF soldiers were killed and four were wounded early Sunday after three Palestinian terrorists disguised as Israeli soldiers infiltrated an IDF outpost near the Erez checkpoint in the Gaza Strip. According to a senior IDF officer in the Gaza Strip, the three gunmen, members of the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, arrived at...

JERUSALEM - Frustrated Palestinian officials harshly criticized Hamas on Saturday, saying the Islamic militant group's abandonment of talks aimed at ending attacks against Israelis could torpedo a new peace plan just as it was getting off the ground. The Palestinian foreign minister chided Hamas, saying it should "act responsibly." Hamas officials said Friday they were cutting off their truce negotiations with Palestinian officials in anger over Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' concessions at a Mideast summit Wednesday in Jordan. At the meeting with President Bush (news - web sites) and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), Abbas...

CAIRO – Early last month, William Welles heard that the Israeli ambassador was coming to visit his downtown Cairo art gallery - again. He locked the doors and went to sit in a coffee shop across the street to watch. The last time the Israeli ambassador visited his gallery unannounced in March, Mr. Welles was condemned in the local press. This time, the ambassador arrived to find a closed gallery. The incident is one small measure of how politically and socially unacceptable it has become in Egypt to host envoys of the state of Israel. Almost a quarter century after...

All eyes are upon the tiny country of Israel this month, as President Bush, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon run down the so-called "road map" for peace in the Middle East. At the heart of this, President Bush and his Mideast team are in a long line of previous administrations who attempted to coordinate peace in Israel. There is a question of whether it is the United States government's role to be involved in coordinating peace in other countries, but a precedent has already been set. A U.S. president is always frowned upon if...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites), by his own description, is a practical man, a leader who doesn't want to waste time on high-profile meetings unless they hold the promise of success. He likes to speak plainly and directly, he says, and tries to get leaders off their formal talking points and into more casual conversations. He trusts his instincts when sizing up people. "One of my jobs is to try to help relax people in a setting. I hope I'm pretty good at that," Bush said the other day. "How do you feel, do you feel relaxed...

<p>AQABA, Jordan, June 4 ? Locked in conflict, fearing for their very existence as nations, Israelis and Palestinians have for generations prized national unity, deferring or papering over internal disputes about the means and ends of their struggles. Continues.</p> <p>SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, June 4 -- Hailing what he sees as "The potential for broader peace among the peoples" of the Middle East, President Bush, in his first thrust into grueling Mideast peace-making, pledged Tuesday that "America is committed and I am committed to helping all the parties to reach the hard and heroic decisions that will lead to peace."</p>

In a conflict where every word uttered, every handshake, facial expression or body movement matters, this week's Aqaba summit had the international community focused on every subtle move expressed by all participants involved. First, the three Mideast leaders and the American president walked toward their speaking podiums in perfect stride, side by side. Then there was the first-ever public handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas that captured everyone's attention. And squeezed in between was the rhetoric: Abbas's speech renouncing terrorism, Sharon's pledge to dismantle newly constructed outposts, and of course president Bush restating...

WASHINGTON--President Bush held two Middle East summits this week. The first, with the Arab states, was an abject failure. The second, with the prime ministers of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was merely a troubling echo of another abject failure, the Oslo handshake of 1993. Let's be plain about what happened at Sharm el-Sheik. The president of the United States put his prestige on the line for the sake of Arab-Israeli peace and the Arab states gave him nothing. They refused to endorse Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. They spoke of their opposition to ``terrorism,'' even as...

<p>DOHA, Qatar &#8212; Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, in a campaign supported by his newspapers and some ministers, publicly rebuffed his prime minister just hours after the three-way summit in Jordan with President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.</p>

JEDDAH, 6 June 2003 &#8212; Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, nearly withdrew from the summit with US President George W. Bush in Egypt because of US pressure to speed up Arab normalization with Israel, it was reported yesterday. Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, said Prince Abdullah rejected a US request to mention in the final summit communique that the Arab parties agreed to normalize ties with Israel as part of steps to build trust with the Jewish state. Prince Abdullah threatened to pull out of Tuesday&#8217;s summit held in the Egyptian...

Iraq: what must be done now Mark Steyn, just back from the Middle East, says that a new order cannot be rushed into existence New Hampshire On the face of it, Jordan’s election this month would seem to be a lively affair. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve driven the length and breadth of the country. Well, not the length, but the breadth — from the Allenby Bridge across from the ghastly Arafat squat on the West Bank over to the eastern desert and the Iraqi border post at Trebil. And in every town you pass through there are...

BUSH AND SHARON IN AQABA "Don't Try These Tricks on Me Again" By Volkhard Windfuhr, Aqaba At the Summit of Three in Aqaba, George W. Bush was extremely brusque with Ariel Sharon. Arriving in an irritable mood, the US president encountered a Prime Minister who appeared morose. AP Sharon, Bush, Abbas Exactly 36 years ago today, Israeli tanks rolled over Egyptian border guards on the Sinai without any advance warning, while in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said sirens shrilly reported enemy planes. The infamous Six Days War had broken out, a war whose territorial and political consequences plague the Middle...

BUSH'S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR WASHINGTON -- This week, President Bush embarked upon a far-flung royal "victory" trip that had all the accoutrements of a conquering Roman Caesar and boasted of all the daring accomplishments of a modern-day Columbus or Alexander the Great. The "Man Called W" rode away from our nation's capital in an elegant plane -- in place of the fancy-dress horses and gallant galleons of his predecessors -- while his bards and minstrels sang robust songs of victory in Afghanistan and Iraq to inspire the masses. En route, the president embraced small, relatively poor countries and drew them...