President Bush In The Middle East

President Bush and Israeli PM Olmert spoke to the press briefly in a news conference in Jerusalem after their meeting today in Israel, the first stop on the president's Middle East tour.

Interestingly,President Bush mentioned as a final settlement issue the Palestinian so-called “right of return”, even though Israel has already stated many times that the issue of swamping Israel with Palestinians claiming to be refugees is non-negotiable.

The emphasis in the news conference was sweetness and light, as is normal for these type of affairs. Bush praised both Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert as serious about peace.

He also repeatedly referred to both the Israelis and the Palestinians making hard choices, which makes me wonder, respectfully, whether the president actually looked at what Mahmoud Abbas had to say in Annapolis. If he did, he surely knows that Abbas made a point of saying that he was unwilling to make any of those `hard choices' whatsoever.

Bush told the Yediot Ahronot daily reporter he would reassure Israeli leaders that Israel would not have to live beside a Palestinian neighbor dedicated to its destruction.

"I'm going to promise the Israelis that under no circumstances will Israeli democracy be forced to live with a terror state on its border," Bush said.

Olmeert also put a brave face on things, particularly when one of the notoriously unrestrained Israeli press cracked that Avigdor Leiberman of Israel Beteinyu, one of Olmert's chief coalition partners would be leaving the government.

The President also had some things to say about Iran.

"It was a very dangerous gesture on their part," he said about the Iranian provocation in the Persian Gulf. "They know our position, and that is there will be serious consequences if they attack our ships -- pure and simple. My advice to them is don't do it."

Bush also glossed over a question that compared the US NIE on Iran with Israeli intel that showed the program was ongoing by referring to Iran as a threat to world peace. And stating that even if the Iran curtailed their covert program in 2003, there's no guarantee they couldn't start it up again.

"I said then ( talking about the NIE press conference) that Iran was a threat, Iran is a threat, and Iran will be a threat if the international community does not come together and prevent that nation from the development of the know-how to build a nuclear weapon.

A country which once had a secret program can easily restart a secret program. A country which can enrich for civilian purposes can easily transfer that knowledge to a military program. A country which has made statements that it's made about the security of our friend Israel is a country that needs to be taken seriously.

And the international community must understand with clarity the threat that Iran provides to world peace.

And we will continue to work with European countries and Russia and China as well as nations in this neighborhood to make it abundantly clear that the threat that Iran poses for world peace."

In answer to another question, Bush said that the first thing he planned to ask Abbas when he meets with him tomorrow wold be how he plans to stop th erocket and mortar attacks on Israel emeanating from Gaza when they meet in Ramallah, an dthat his second question would be "how can we help?"

This is blatantly dishonest on the part of Presidnt Bush, who is far from stupid. He knows that Abbas only controls Ramallah and has no capability to ensure security even in the Palestinian occupied areas of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank, and that he has no ability to affect things in Gaza whatsoever.

Olmert in his statements said that peace was impossible until the Palestinian attacks from both areas ended, and that without Gaza, a peace agreement with the Palestinians is difficult if not unreachable.

Hamas, of course, had its own response to the president. Aside from lauching another rocket attack on Israel to coincide with Bush's arrival, Hamas also orchestrated a major rally with several thousands attendees against `war criminal Bush':





In another point of interest, aside form meeting with Abbas tommorow, the president is also scheduled to meet with Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Now that would be an interesting conversation to eavesdrop on!