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http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Bush_Abbas,_Olmert_/2007/11/28/52777.html
Bush Calls Abbas, Olmert to White House
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Just 24 hours after securing an agreement between Israeli and
Palestinian leaders to resume long-stalled peace talks, President Bush
invited the pair to the White House to ceremonially inaugurate the first
formal, direct negotiations in seven years.
Capping an intense flurry of diplomacy that salvaged a joint
Israeli-Palestinian agreement at nearby Annapolis, Md., to launch a fresh
round of talks, Bush planned to meet separately Wednesday with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and finally
to get them together for an afternoon session declaring the talks formally
under way.
After meeting their own low expectations for the Annapolis conference amid
intense skepticism, Bush administration officials crowed with delight.
"What has been remarkable about this process is that they are now ready to
go," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC during a round of TV
interviews Wednesday morning in which she praised unprecedented support for
the peace process from Arab states.
"It's going to be hard, but you had support in that room that you had not
had from Arab states in the past," Rice said on NBC.
After inaugurating the negotiations at the White House, the two sides have
agreed to continue with a meeting in the region on Dec. 12, Rice said
Tuesday.
Bush, along with Rice, had earlier salvaged a "joint understanding" between
the Israelis and Palestinians, who had remained far apart on the details of
the statement until the last minute.
But with prodding from the American side, Olmert and Abbas - troubled
leaders with fragile mandates for peace - told international backers and
skeptical Arab neighbors they are ready for hard bargaining toward an
independent Palestinian state in the 14 months Bush has left in office.
"This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it," Bush said after
reading from the just-completed text the statement that took weeks to
negotiate and yet sets only the vaguest terms for the talks to come.
"I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can to
help you achieve this ambitious goal," Bush told Abbas and Olmert as the
three stood together in the U.S. Naval Academy's majestic Memorial Hall. "I
give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and
resolve of the American government."
The two Mideast leaders were circumspect but optimistic.
"I had many good reasons not to come here," Olmert told diplomats, including
those from Arab states that do not recognize Israel like Saudi Arabia and
Syria. "Memory of failures in the near and distant past weighs heavy upon
us."
Abbas, meanwhile, recited a familiar list of Palestinian demands, including
calls for Israel to end the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that
could be part of an eventual state called Palestine and to release some of
the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other," Abbas said. "It is a
joint interest for us and you. Peace and freedom is a right for us, just as
peace and security is a right for you and us."
Bush has held Mideast peacemaking at arms' length for most of his nearly
seven years in office, arguing that conditions in Israel and the Palestinian
territories were not right for a more energetic role. Arab allies, among
others, have warned that the Palestinian plight underlies other conflicts
and feeds grievances across the Middle East, and have urged the White House
to do more.
Bush seemed to answer the criticism Tuesday, giving detailed reasons why the
time is now. He said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are ready to make
peace, that there is a wider and unifying fight against extremism fed by the
Palestinian conflict and that he world understands the urgency of acting
now.
Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Bush spoke of the
importance of giving beleaguered Palestinians something positive to look
forward to - and he sketched a grim alternative.
Without a hopeful vision, he said, "it is conceivable that we could lose an
entire generation - or a lot of a generation - to radicals and extremists.
There has to be something more positive. And that is on the horizon today."
Negotiating teams will hold their first session in the region in just two
weeks, on Dec. 12, and Olmert and Abbas plan to continue one-on-one
discussions they began earlier this year. In addition, many of the same
nations and organizations attending Tuesday's conference will gather again
on Dec. 17 in Paris to raise money for the perpetually cash-strapped
Palestinians.
To attract Arab backing, the Bush administration included a session in the
conference devoted to "comprehensive" peace questions - a coded reference to
other Arab disputes with Israel. Syria came to the conference intending to
raise its claim to the strategic Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967,
and Lebanon wanted to talk about its border dispute with Israel. Rice told
reporters that Syria and Lebanon spoke up, but she gave no details.
But in a sign of the difficult road ahead, Abbas' speech was immediately
rejected by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that stormed to power in
the Gaza Strip in June, a month before Bush announced plans for the peace
conference.
Bush Calls Abbas, Olmert to White House
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Just 24 hours after securing an agreement between Israeli and
Palestinian leaders to resume long-stalled peace talks, President Bush
invited the pair to the White House to ceremonially inaugurate the first
formal, direct negotiations in seven years.
Capping an intense flurry of diplomacy that salvaged a joint
Israeli-Palestinian agreement at nearby Annapolis, Md., to launch a fresh
round of talks, Bush planned to meet separately Wednesday with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and finally
to get them together for an afternoon session declaring the talks formally
under way.
After meeting their own low expectations for the Annapolis conference amid
intense skepticism, Bush administration officials crowed with delight.
"What has been remarkable about this process is that they are now ready to
go," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC during a round of TV
interviews Wednesday morning in which she praised unprecedented support for
the peace process from Arab states.
"It's going to be hard, but you had support in that room that you had not
had from Arab states in the past," Rice said on NBC.
After inaugurating the negotiations at the White House, the two sides have
agreed to continue with a meeting in the region on Dec. 12, Rice said
Tuesday.
Bush, along with Rice, had earlier salvaged a "joint understanding" between
the Israelis and Palestinians, who had remained far apart on the details of
the statement until the last minute.
But with prodding from the American side, Olmert and Abbas - troubled
leaders with fragile mandates for peace - told international backers and
skeptical Arab neighbors they are ready for hard bargaining toward an
independent Palestinian state in the 14 months Bush has left in office.
"This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it," Bush said after
reading from the just-completed text the statement that took weeks to
negotiate and yet sets only the vaguest terms for the talks to come.
"I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can to
help you achieve this ambitious goal," Bush told Abbas and Olmert as the
three stood together in the U.S. Naval Academy's majestic Memorial Hall. "I
give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and
resolve of the American government."
The two Mideast leaders were circumspect but optimistic.
"I had many good reasons not to come here," Olmert told diplomats, including
those from Arab states that do not recognize Israel like Saudi Arabia and
Syria. "Memory of failures in the near and distant past weighs heavy upon
us."
Abbas, meanwhile, recited a familiar list of Palestinian demands, including
calls for Israel to end the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that
could be part of an eventual state called Palestine and to release some of
the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other," Abbas said. "It is a
joint interest for us and you. Peace and freedom is a right for us, just as
peace and security is a right for you and us."
Bush has held Mideast peacemaking at arms' length for most of his nearly
seven years in office, arguing that conditions in Israel and the Palestinian
territories were not right for a more energetic role. Arab allies, among
others, have warned that the Palestinian plight underlies other conflicts
and feeds grievances across the Middle East, and have urged the White House
to do more.
Bush seemed to answer the criticism Tuesday, giving detailed reasons why the
time is now. He said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are ready to make
peace, that there is a wider and unifying fight against extremism fed by the
Palestinian conflict and that he world understands the urgency of acting
now.
Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Bush spoke of the
importance of giving beleaguered Palestinians something positive to look
forward to - and he sketched a grim alternative.
Without a hopeful vision, he said, "it is conceivable that we could lose an
entire generation - or a lot of a generation - to radicals and extremists.
There has to be something more positive. And that is on the horizon today."
Negotiating teams will hold their first session in the region in just two
weeks, on Dec. 12, and Olmert and Abbas plan to continue one-on-one
discussions they began earlier this year. In addition, many of the same
nations and organizations attending Tuesday's conference will gather again
on Dec. 17 in Paris to raise money for the perpetually cash-strapped
Palestinians.
To attract Arab backing, the Bush administration included a session in the
conference devoted to "comprehensive" peace questions - a coded reference to
other Arab disputes with Israel. Syria came to the conference intending to
raise its claim to the strategic Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967,
and Lebanon wanted to talk about its border dispute with Israel. Rice told
reporters that Syria and Lebanon spoke up, but she gave no details.
But in a sign of the difficult road ahead, Abbas' speech was immediately
rejected by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that stormed to power in
the Gaza Strip in June, a month before Bush announced plans for the peace
conference.
