Speaking to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, US President George W. Bush on Thursday criticized the terror of al-Qaida, Hizbullah and Hamas and said that he looks forward to a day when Muslims "recognize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause." Bush pledged that the United States and Israel share an unbreakable bond.
"Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away," Bush said. "This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. 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."
Bush addresses a gala gathering in Jerusalem on Wednesday night.
Bush said the United States stands with Israel in opposing moves by Teheran to obtain nuclear weapons. "Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations," the president said. "For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
With just eight months remaining in his presidency, Bush's speech offered no suggestions on how to resolve disputes with the Palestinians. There was only one mention of a timetable for achieving a Palestinian state in Bush's speech and the only reference to the Palestinians came in a passage envisioning the future of Israel 60 years from now. "Israel will be celebrating its 120th anniversary as one of the world's great democracies, a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people," he said. "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.
"From Cairo and Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy, tourism, and trade. Iran and Syria will be peaceful nations, where today's oppression is a distant memory and people are free to speak their minds and develop their talents. And al-Qaida, Hizbullah, and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause."
The effort to reach an agreement in 2008 looked unlikely even before Bush's trip. Even Condoleezza Rice called it "improbable" but "not impossible." Fresh difficulties greeted him upon arrival, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hogtied by a widening corruption probe and new outbursts of violence, including a rocket attack on a medical clinic in a crowded Ashkelon mall.
"They claim the mantle of Islam, but they are not religious men," Bush said. "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 Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers."
Bush said that those who commit such violent acts are serving themselves. "They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty, including Americans and Israelis," he said. "That is why the founding charter of Hamas calls for the 'elimination' of Israel. That is why the followers of Hizbullah chant 'Death to Israel, Death to America!' That is why Osama bin Laden teaches that 'the killing of Jews and Americans is one of the biggest duties.' And that is why the president of Iran dreams of returning the Middle East to the Middle Ages and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map."
Speaking before Bush, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his nation was ready for peace.
In his speech, Olmert told the Knesset that he was working on the US vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
He said he was committed to carrying out Bush's vision of forming an independent Palestinian state next to Israel, and he said he believed the Israeli public and parliament will rally behind it. But as Olmert spoke, several Right-wing MKs walked out of the plenum.
Olmert also quoted the Bible, from the book of Isaiah: "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."
It wasn't not clear if he was referring to himself as one who "keepeth the truth" but the national fraud squad did give him a couple of days off from interrogation during the Bush visit. But Olmert apparently does not trusteth in the perfection of the Israeli court system, and appealed to prevent a preliminary hearing to record the testimony of key scandal witness and alleged former bagman for Olmert: Morris "The Laundry Man" Talansky, as Olmert's own cronies call him.
Olmert then turned to Bush personally, saying "it is not customary in such events, where protocol plays such a big part ... but I want to tell you, man to man, father to father, family man to family man: In politics one gets to hear many statements, which are duly recorded and filed and then forgotten. [The welcome] you and your wife have received here today, is true and will not be forgotten. And not because it is written in the Knesset's protocols, but because it comes from my heart, from the heart of this house and from the heart of the people of Israel."
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) addressed the Knesset before Bush, and also welcomed the president: "We welcome today a great friend of Israel? since the establishment of Israel the US has stood by us time and again, and for that we say thank you.
"The beginning of the 21st century sees us facing yet another threat. You have challenged this threat and you are tireless in your fight against terror and tyranny... Israel strives for regional peace in order to strengthen the moderate forces and weaken the radical ones," continued Netanyahu. "For that to happen, Israel will have to maintain its borders. It must be able to protect itself and the future peace."
Before his speech to the Knesset, Bush toured Masada, the ancient fortress on a plateau in the desert overlooking the Dead Sea, where Jewish rebels killed themselves 2,000 years ago rather than fall into slavery under the Romans.
Bush took a cable car ride up the steep side of the cliff and past ruins of camps that the Romans used in their three-month siege of the fortress. Atop the plateau, Bush and his wife Laura Bush, accompanied by Olmert, sviewed a 29-room storeroom complex, frescoes, a bathhouse, synagogue and a Byzantine church.
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