Posted on 05/26/2005 6:13:16 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Bush Praises Abbas, Says Israel Needs Palestinian Consent to Retain Formerly Arab Territory
Published: May 26, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush embraced Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday as a courageous democratic reformer and bolstered his standing at home with $50 million in assistance to improve the quality of life in Gaza.
Abbas, the first top Palestinian leader to visit the White House during Bush's presidency, said Palestinians were "in dire need to have freedom" from Israeli control and that the need for U.S. help was urgent. He spoke just weeks before scheduled parliamentary elections in which his supporters are vying against the militant group Hamas.
"Time is becoming our greatest enemy," Abbas said toward the end of a three-day visit during which he projected himself as the peaceful successor to Yasser Arafat and depicted the Palestinians as long suffering at the hands of Israel. Arafat, who died last November, was never invited to the White House by Bush.
Laying claim to all the land the Arabs lost to Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, including east Jerusalem, Abbas said, "It is time for our people, after many decades of suffering and dispossessions, to enjoy living in freedom on their own land."
The boundaries of a future Palestinian state should be those that existed before the 1967 war, he said, meaning before Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
At a joint news conference in the sunlit Rose Garden, Bush lent a measure of support to the Palestinians' territorial demands. He said Israel needed Palestinian consent to retain land the Arabs lost 38 years ago.
Any changes Israel made in expanding its boundaries since the end of the 1948 war for independence "must be mutually agreed to," Bush said. And he said Israel must remove illegal makeshift outposts from the West Bank and stop expanding Jewish settlements.
Notably, the president did not repeat the support he voiced last year during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for Israel retaining large settlements on the West Bank near Jerusalem.
Later, a senior administration official who refused to be identified said Bush stood by past statements supporting Israel's claims to the settlements. And while Abbas called for prompt negotiations with Israel on an overall peace accord, the official said the administration believes the parties were not ready and could risk a breakdown if they moved too quickly.
Despite the display of comity, Bush and Abbas differed on the barrier Israel is constructing to screen out terrorists.
Abbas said, "There is no justification for the wall and it is illegitimate."
Bush said the barrier was part of an Israeli security effort and it "must be a security rather than a political barrier."
Israeli officials attribute a sharp decline in terror attacks to the barrier.
Overall, the atmosphere at the White House was warm and in sharp contrast to the Bush administration's appraisal of Arafat as corrupt and a supporter of attacks on Israel.
Asked whether Abbas had moved aggressively to dismantle terror groups in Palestinian-held areas, Bush said he knew he leader was committed to democracy and was elected on a peace platform.
"You cannot have a democracy based upon rule of law if you have armed bands of people who will use their weapons to try to achieve a political outcome," Bush said.
Still, he did not directly call on Abbas to dismantle Palestinian terror groups, though he reaffirmed that Hamas fit that description as far as he was concerned.
Bush said he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Middle East to talk to Israeli and Palestinian leaders before the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza this summer. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said she probably would go in mid-June.
In a show of support, Bush said he would provide $50 million to the Palestinian Authority, which Abbas heads. The money is to be used for new housing in Gaza, which Sharon plans to evacuate this summer.
To get around Arafat, all but $20 million in U.S. aid for the Palestinians over the past decade has been channeled to third parties, not the Palestinian Authority.
"These funds will be used to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians living in Gaza," the president said.
Boucher said the $50 million would come out of $200 million in U.S. aid already approved by Congress for the current year.
Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., a senior member of the House Appropriations committee, said Abbas was engaged in a struggle with Hamas for the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people and needed "to bring real results to his people."
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator, said in Ramallah the $50 million was a "modest beginning" and she was "sure the United States is capable of giving greater support not only to Gaza but also for the West Bank."
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On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
State Department's Middle East Peace site: http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rt/c2829.htm
AP-ES-05-26-05 1949EDT
But continue to supply them with electricity and infrastructure......Alouette
I am referring to human to human contact.
Palestinian workers crossing the Israeli border into Israel on a daily basis......Bad idea. Palestinians go BOOM!!.
Israel providing inanimate electrical lines to the Palestinians........Who cares. You even get Brownie Points for it.
Cannot agree with the Pres. on this. Israel was attacked and gained this land by defeating their attackers. They need it for the buffer and protectiion it affords. There was not and is not a Palestinian state that owns this land.
By this reasoning, we should give Texas back to Mexico---which it also sometimes looks like Bush is for, and the Cherokee Nation
back to it's original owners.
vaudine.
"He's Old School when it comes to dealing with thugs and tyrants, unlike his predecessor."Total TRUTH!!!!I do not want America strong President weak NO!!!!!!I do want know why this evil Abbas go to America strong President I am happy this is not Clinton expresident!!!!Yes expresident weak president!!!!this is total war no time to write no time be weak no no no!!!!I do feel America strong President have important thing not this evil devil Abbas person I do agree time is time America strong President do know good and evil that is good!!!Be strong America President one word this Abbas person talk talk talk I do know you do know America strong President this is tactical talk I do know you do have strong persons for you like Dr. Condoleezza Rice Dick Cheney Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Secretary Michael Chertoff Andrew H. Card, Jr. Ambassador Rob Portman Be strong America President!!!Thank you
What has that got to do with the price of tea in China?
If you want to get rid of all Arabs within Israel, then propose a "Final Solution" for Arabs within Israel and see how far that gets you.
In the Real World, Israel will be separating themselves from Arabs who want to kill them and not from Arabs who have been living peacefully in Israel since 1948.
If Israel considers a certain Arab-Israeli citizen a security risk, Israel can deport his treasonous butt to the opposite side of the Israeli Wall.
If your contention is that loyal and peaceful Arabs may not live within Israel, then that is as wrong as saying that loyal and peaceful Jews did not deserve to live within Germany in the 1930's.
Our President should not give money to a very large terrorist gang that refuses to stop attacks against Israel. And historically, factually, there has never been a Palestinian nationality. There is only a breeding army of generic Arabs who are trying to exterminate the people of Israel (see "British Mandate").
And as for Europe, we cannot appease Europe, either, by helping emissaries from various Arab nations to take all roads leading into Israel (again, see what the British did).
Be good:}}}}}}}}}time is time Thank you
Tricky language aside, this rings a bell comparing it to the British White Paper of 1939 (not to be confused with the one of 1922), where the jew immigration to the Mandate was restricted to a ridiculously low number, and anything further was subjected to "no further Jewish immigration will be permitted unless the Arabs of Palestine are prepared to acquiesce in it"; i.e. asking them for consent.
As it was then, an attempt to appease arabs giving them unearned authority now would result on going further away from anything resembling peace, not closer.
I believe that anyone willing to live in peace with their neighbors should be allowed to stay in their homes. That includes the Jews in Gaza. It is lunacy to say 8 thousand Jews cannot stay in Gaza but that 100 thousand more Arabs can come to Israel.
Bush seems to have failed to grasp the most basic concept of a contract. A contract is only in effect if both sides perform their part. If Israel agreed not to expand settlements in return for Arabs cracking down on terrorists and Abbas has not done so Israel is under no obligation to carry out its part. If Bush's Harken Energy agreed to pay for the purchase of drilling equipment and the company failed to deliver the equipment would Harken have kept paying anyway? That is what Israel is being asked to do.
A false peace will lead to war.
I think that what's going on here is that Bush is challenging Abbas. Don't pay too much attention to what Bush says - that's all diplomatic schmooze.The real deal, I think, is that Bush says to the Palestinians: You want a democracy, you can have it. But in his heart, I don't think Bush thinks they're capable of it.
The probable scenario is that they will form a Palestinian State out of Gaza and perhaps some of the West Bank, things will be quiet for a short while, but sooner or later, and probably sooner, the new Palestinian state will attack Israel in some manner.
Then, it will not be a case of Israel being attacked by an
"occupied people seeking their independence from their occupier", but one sovereign country attacking another,
meaning, an act of war. At that point, Israel will respond
accordingly, as the US did on 9/11, with Bush's support, and
inflict massive retaliation on their Palestinian neighbor.
interesting point to make.
lost on el presidente "clueless," however.
This is total war evil again come this is total war good and evil!!! be strong good persons!!!!Abbas talk talk talk read good persons read please do know this is tactical atack please be strong read like snake this person come read snake what snake is Thank you all
"A false peace will lead to war."THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!War is now good friend total war!!!!
The real "head of the snake" is Saudi Arabia"..
Are the Jews in Israel killing Israeli Arabs?
"Peace" is a two-way street that only exists when BOTH sides want Peace. That situation exists between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews within Israel but it does not exist in Gaza.
In 1989, before the killer Hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina, the State of South Carolina ordered a mandatory evacuation of the barrier islands around Charleston. Many homeowners refused stating that they had a right to stay in their own homes.
After the Hurricane Hugo hit, the Police and Fire Departments were flooded with calls from these same people demanding that policemen and firemen risk their lives to go out in the middle of the hurricane and save them.
The response was, "Sorry. No. You had your chance for safety and you refused."
The Gaza residents want the "right" to live where they please, yet they demand that the soldiers of the IDF risk their lives to assure them that right.
Put not your trust in politicians, whatever their name (Bush, Sharon, Putin, whatever). As it says this week's haftarah, "cursed be the man who trusts in human beings and makes flesh his strength, and turns his heart from HaShem!"
Ridiculous argument. Jews living in Germany CONSIDERED THEMSELVES GERMANS. Muslim Arabs living in Israel consider themselves MUSLIM ARABS: PATIENT MUSLIM ARABS
"German" is a nationality description as is "Israeli" or "American" or "Jordanian".
"Arab" is an racial-ethnic group description as is "Slav" or "Aborigine".
"Muslim" is a religion as is "Jewish" or "Catholic".
Is it your contention that people of certain ethnic groups or religious groups can never be loyal citizens?
Is that not exactly what those Germans in the 1930's who wanted to rid Germany of the "Jewish problem" said about all Jewish German citizens?
Did they not claim that a person could not be a Jew and a loyal German at the same time?
If there is a particular Arab Israeli citizen that the State of Israel feels is a traitor, the State of Israel needs only to escort that traitor to the opposite side of the Israeli Wall.
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