Bush meets Israeli president in Jerusalem (Extra)

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Middle East News
Bush meets Israeli president in Jerusalem (Extra)


May 14, 2008, 12:00 GMT

Jerusalem - US President George W Bush met Wednesday afternoon in Jerusalem with President Shimon Peres, hours after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv for a 48-hour visit.

The two men chattered easily as they walked around the garden in Peres' official residence, before facing reporters and giving brief statements.

Peres also presented Bush with a Bible and a jewel box for the occasion of his daughter's wedding.

Bush is in Israel to honour the country on its 60th anniversary. He will give a keynote speech at an international conference Peres is hosting in Jerusalem, and will also address the Knesset.

He is also scheduled to hold talks with Israeli leaders before he departs on Friday for Saudi Arabia. On Saturday and Sunday he will meet Palestinian leaders n the Egyptian resort of Sharm a-Sheikh.
_________________
"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton

Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.

Bush at end of Israel visit: 'What's on my mind is peace'

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May 16, 2008 11:25 | Updated May 16, 2008 13:56

Bush at end of Israel visit: 'What's on my mind is peace'

By JPOST.COM STAFF

US President George W. Bush wrapped up his two-day visit to Israel Friday with a tour and discussion with a group of Israeli youth leaders at the Bible Lands Museum. His second museum visit of the trip, this one illustrates cultures of all civilizations mentioned in the Bible.


"What's on my mind is peace," Bush told the group. "I believe it's possible. I know it will happen when young people put their minds together."

According to the youngsters, Bush also told them that just as the US changed its treatment of minorities, he hoped that Israeli society could also change the way it treats its minorities


Following the discussion, the US president was flown by helicopter from Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem to Ben Gurion Airport.

He then departed on Air Force One for Saudi Arabia to spend a little less than a day with King Abdullah at his desert horse farm outside Riyadh. He will spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Egypt before returning to Washington.

At Ben Gurion, President Shimon Peres said that Bush's visit generated much excitement, the like of which Israel hasn't experienced for a many years. "The state of Israel seemed to have forgotten how to get excited," Peres told Israel Radio.

He said it was an exciting week from many perspectives, stressing that the Bush visit and the 'Facing Tomorrow' conference, were a successful hasbara (public diplomacy) coup for Israel and demonstrated the country's recent developments.

Peres went on to say that he was a little surprised by the US president's Knesset speech on Thursday in with he came out so staunchly in support of Israel.
"If any Israeli has any doubt to the value of Bush's remarks, he should try and listen to them with Arab ears, then he will understand the power of the speech," said the president.
Peres said Bush's message to terrorists was crystal clear. "The message was that we are not scared of you, we are more than you, we are stronger than you and don't think you can do whatever you want. The strongest message was that we are 307 million, not two isolated nations of seven million and 300 million."

During Thursday's Knesset address, Bush had said, "Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you."
"Don't forget," continued Peres, "he is now going to Saudi Arabia, an Arab country. He knows exactly to whom his words are directed," adding, "he sent a strong and unequivocal message of peace."

Peres said that he asked Bush to pass on a message to Abdullah that Israel believed the Saudi king's proposal for a three-way religious summit was of vital importance.
Bush is paying a second visit to Abdullah in four months in part because he considers him crucial to achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Bush has said he expects this to happen before he leaves office in January, though his optimism has waned recently.
Saudi Arabia is the most powerful Sunni Arab state that has not made peace with Israel, so its backing of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and any concessions he will have to make in negotiations with Israel is seen as key.

The Saudis feel Washington leans unfairly to Israel's side in the dispute with the Palestinians.

The White House said Thursday that the president's Saudi visit - intended in part to celebrate 75 years of formal US-Saudi relations - would also mark the conclusion of several agreements, laying out intentions to cooperate on nuclear energy, infrastructure protection and nonproliferation.
Bush last saw Abdullah in Saudi Arabia just in January and, although the kingdom has traditionally been a close US ally, the president's plea for an oil production increase to ease US prices ultimately was for naught. Bush and his aides have argued this is because there is little additional production capacity in the Middle East, presumably repeating what they hear from their ally.

But Saudi Arabia, which has the world's largest oil reserves, has in the past acknowledged the ability to produce as much as 11 million barrels a day, up from a little over 8.5 million barrels a day now.

The Saudi-American relationship began in the 1940s with a simple bargain: Saudi Arabia offered oil in return for US protection. The United States became the kingdom's biggest trading partner and the Saudis became the biggest buyers of US weapons. Many Saudis sent their children to American schools.


Saudi-US ties took their hardest hit after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which 15 the 19 airline hijackers were Saudis. Americans blamed the Saudis for allowing the religious extremism that gave rise to the hijackers. Though anti-terror cooperation has been relatively strong since, Saudis still sting from feeling unfairly accused.
_________________
"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton

Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.

Bush: Masada will never fall again

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May 15, 2008 11:13 | Updated May 16, 2008 1:26

Bush: Masada will never fall again

By HERB KEINON AND REBECCA ANNA STOIL

In a spirited and stirring speech of friendship for Israel, US President George W. Bush told the Knesset on Thursday that the US-Israeli alliance is "unbreakable."

"Earlier today, I visited Masada, an inspiring monument to courage and sacrifice," Bush said. "At this historic site, Israeli soldiers swear an oath: 'Masada shall never fall again.' Citizens of Israel: Masada shall never fall again, and America will always stand with you."
The president, in a speech punctuated by applause on numerous occasions, and capped by a standing ovation, said the US-Israeli relationship was "grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul."
Sounding like the Bush of the immediate post 9/11 days, the US president said the fight against terror and extremism was "the defining challenge of our time."

"It is more than a clash of arms," he said. "It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies."
At its core, Bush said, this was a battle "between good and evil. The killers claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men. No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Pessah Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers."

Bush praised Israel for the society it has built against the odds, and for its tenacity and determination to fight terrorism, pledging that the US would stand as one with Israel in this battle.

"Israel's population may be just over seven million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you," he said.
Bush provided no specifics about the state of the diplomatic process, and made only one reference in the 2,400-word speech to a Palestinian state. That reference came in the context of an almost utopian vision he laid out for the region in 60 years time, when the state turns 120.
"Israel will be celebrating its 120th anniversary as one of the worlds great democracies, a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people," Bush envisioned. "The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved: a democratic state that is governed by law, respects human rights, and rejects terror."

He said that on that day, al-Qaida, Hizbullah and Hamas would be defeated, "as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause."

Bush, during the speech, took a couple of pointed jabs, one at the United Nations, and another that appeared to be directed at Sen. Barack Obama.

"We believe that democracy is the only way to ensure human rights," Bush said. "So we consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights resolutions against the freest democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the world."
His reference to Obama was more veiled. "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," he said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.'"

Obama has come out in favor of negotiations both with Iran and Syria. Bush said the US stood firmly with Israel in opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. "Permitting the worlds leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said, stopping short, however, of a commitment to keep Iran from going nuclear under his watch.

"You have raised a modern society in the Promised Land, a light unto the nations that preserves the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," he said at the end of the speech. "And you have built a mighty democracy that will endure forever and can always count on America to stand at its side."

"May God bless Israel," Bush said at the end of the address, which was welcomed by a number of Knesset members from across the political spectrum, with some going so far as to claim the American leader as one of their own.

"Bush taught [Prime Minister] Olmert a lesson in Zionism. His speech was the speech of an NU-NRP member and his unbounded support for Israel is exciting," said MK Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party), who also called on the American president to release Jonathan Pollard.

"If only our leaders would make speeches like that," said MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud). "It was a clearly Zionist speech."
But it was not only the right-wing parties that welcomed Bush's comments. "It was not necessarily a balanced speech, but it will be remembered for its commitment to the security of the State of Israel," said MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz).

Not all lawmakers, however, were impressed with the visiting president. The majority of Arab MKs boycotted the speech altogether, although a handful arrived at the beginning of Bush's speech, bearing signs saying "We shall overcome" and pictures of dead children. In the middle of the speech, they stood and left.

Bush was not the only focus of protest during the special Knesset session - NU-NRP MKs called out in the middle of Olmert's speech, after the prime minister said that a strong majority of the legislature would ultimately vote in favor of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

"Only in your dreams," yelled out MK Arye Eldad, before two of his party's members walked out in protest.
Even though Bush articulated extremely strong support for Israel, he did not announce - as some had expected - any new arms sales or strategic agreements.
_________________
"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." -General George S. Patton

Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.