Olmert says 'hand of God' favours Israel in peace talks Fri Jan 4, 7:37 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the hand of God had helped create an international climate that is favourable to Israel in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians, according to an interview published on Friday. If there's a chance to reach an agreement in the presidential term of George Bush, that's preferable, Olmert said in an interview with the English-language Jerusalem Post published ahead of Bush's landmark visit to the region next week.It's not merely Bush's presidency. It's a concidence that is almost the hand of God: that Bush is president of the United States, that Nicolas Sarkozy is the president of France, that Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany, that Gordon Brown is the prime minister of England and that the special envoy to the Middle East is Tony Blair.What possible combination could be more comfortable for the state of Israel? So why would I gamble on what might be?
He said that despite this favourable environment, Israel would have to make concessions if it hoped to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbours.The world that is friendly to Israel -- not the world comprised of fanatics and extremists -- the world that really supports Israel, when it speaks of the future, it speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It speaks of division of Jerusalem. We must remember this.Olmert's interview was published ahead of next week's landmark visit to the region by Bush, the first one to Israel and the Palestinian territories by a sitting US president in nine years.Bush aims to advance final status negotiations that the Israeli premier and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched at a US conference hosted by the American president in late November, after nearly a seven-year hiatus.
At the time they both pledged to aim for a final agreement by the end of 2008, just weeks before Bush is to leave office.I don't know if I will be able to meet the timetable and I never promised that I would. I said that I hoped so but I don't know.But let me ask you: If there's a chance to reach an agreement and to get assistance to complete an agreement, what is better for us, that it be done in the era of President Bush or that of another president when we at the moment can't exactly know who that president will be and what his positions will be? Olmert heaped praise on Bush, saying in all my years of public life, since 1973, I don't recall that America was led by someone as friendly since the days of president (Gerald) Ford and adding that he doesn't apply pressure.I don't recall another preisdent who systematically and consistently showed the same level of commitment to Israel as George W. Bush, adding that with him, I know for certain that he backs our red lines and that he doesn't say a thing that he thinks will make life harder for Israel.Olmert reiterated that we will honour our obligations as set out in the roadmap, the 2003 international roadmap peace blueprint that called on Israel to halt settlement activity and on the Palestinians to boost security.
But he reiterated that Israel had no intention of giving up some of the large settlement blocks in the occupied Palestinian territory, notably the Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem --one of West Bank's largest.Maale Adumim is an indivisible part of Jerusalem and the State of Israel. I don't think when they're talking about settlements they are talking about Maale Adumim.
Olmert: Israel fails to halt settlements By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer JAN 04,08
JERUSALEM - Israel has failed to uphold its promise to halt building in settlements, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an unprecedented acknowledgement Friday ahead of President Bush's visit to prod Israel and the Palestinians toward a final accord. Any agreement is to be based on the internationally backed road map peace plan, which was revived ahead of the recent Mideast peace summit in Annapolis, Md., where Israel and the Palestinians officially relaunched talks after seven years of violence.The road map foundered shortly after it was presented in 2003 because neither side met initial obligations: Israel did not halt West Bank settlement construction and the Palestinians did not crack down on militants.Israel has long maintained that it has the right to continue building in existing settlements to account for ill-defined natural growth of the existing settler population — something the road map explicitly bans. But in his interview with The Jerusalem Post, Olmert acknowledged that Israel was not honoring its commitments.There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised, Olmert said.
Obligations are not only to be demanded of others, but they must also be honored by ourselves. So there is a certain problem here, the newspaper quoted him as saying.Olmert added, however, that Israel believes a Bush letter to the Israeli government in 2004renders flexible to a degree what is written in the road map.In that letter, Bush wrote that existing Israeli population centers should be taken into consideration when the final borders of a Palestinian state are set down. Israel takes this to mean it will be able to retain major West Bank settlement blocs, where much of the controversial construction is going on.Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Olmert's remarks. When both sides admit they are not carrying out all their obligations, that should be the way for both of us to carry out our obligations, Erekat said.Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Friday that Israel might begin dismantling about two dozen unauthorized settlement outposts in the near future — another road map obligation.I hope and also believe that in the near future, during the U.S. president's visit to Israel and afterwards, real steps will be taken to remove those outposts, Ramon told Israel Radio.The outposts are generally tiny settler encampments, meant to expand Jewish presence in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as part of a future state, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Israel captured all three territories in the 1967 Mideast war. It immediately annexed east Jerusalem but evacuated Gaza in 2005.Israel has stepped up efforts to make peace with the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, ever since the Islamic Hamas routed Abbas' Fatah forces and took over Gaza in June. At Annapolis, both sides set a December 2008 target — the end of Bush's tenure — for a final deal.
Olmert told The Jerusalem Post that a peace agreement might not be reached this year as Bush hopes — something he has said before. But Bush has not pressured Israel to advance in the negotiations, Olmert said.Israel has demanded that Abbas clamp down on militants, while carrying out its own operations against extremists in the West Bank and Gaza.Two Hamas gunmen were shot and killed by Israeli troops along Gaza's border with Israel before dawn Friday — bringing to 11 the number of Palestinians killed since militants fired a rocket a day earlier on a major Israeli city.The military struck Gaza with aerial and ground attacks after the Israeli town of Ashkelon was hit Thursday with a rocket that has a deadlier warhead and longer range than those usually fired. Four of the 11 Gazans killed were civilians.A rocket fired late Friday afternoon struck a house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. No injuries were immediately reported. A little-known Fatah offshoot, Mujahedeen Brigades, claimed responsibility. Israel also kept up a military operation in the West Bank town of Nablus that has injured 35 people and kept 150,000 residents confined to their homes under a curfew for three days. Nablus, a center of militant activity, is a test case of Abbas' ability to impose law and order in the West Bank. In coordination with Israel, Palestinian security forces have deployed around the city in recent weeks, but Israeli troops unilaterally launched the operation in Nablus on Wednesday after announcing they discovered a militant weapons lab there.
A statement from Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's office on Friday said he considers the Nablus operation destructive to his government's efforts in the security field.These Israeli aggressions have a very negative influence on the efforts to revive the peace process, read the statement. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the Palestinian security forces were not yet ready to take over full responsibilities in the West Bank. At the moment, it is clear that much, much work still has to be done to rebuild and reform Palestinian security, he said.
Bush tells Jordan king the US is committed to peace: palace JAN 04,08
AMMAN (AFP) - US President George W. Bush telephoned Jordan's King Abdullah II on Friday ahead of a visit to the region next week and said Washington is committed to the newly revived Middle East peace process, a palace statement said. Bush told the king his trip seeks to reaffirm the United States' commitments to helping Israel and the Palestinians reach a final peaceful settlement to their conflict, it said.The king called Bush's landmark visit key to enhancing the vital role by the United States to push for an agreement on final status issues, leading to the establishment of an independent state on Palestinian land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.Jordan is one of only two Arab states -- the other being Egypt -- to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.Bush will spend three days in Israel and the Palestinian territories from next Wednesday in the first visit by a US president in nine years, following his predecessor Bill Clinton's trip in December 1998.
Bush arrives on January 9 for an eight-day trip to the Middle East that aims to boost the peace talks with a view to creating an independent Palestinian state before he leaves office next January.
