Middle East - AP
Bush Backs Off From Concessions to Israel
Date: Thu, May 06, 2004
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) responded Thursday to complaints in the Arab world and Europe that he sides with Israel, urging the Israelis to withdraw from territory they captured in the 1967 Mideast war and turn it over to the Palestinians for a state.
After meeting at the White House with King Abdullah of Jordan, Bush also promised not to "prejudice the outcome" of negotiations with the Palestinians.
Those talks, which the United States, the Europeans, Arabs and Israel also say they seek, are hold. Neither Bush nor Abdullah have indication of a new approach to get them started.
At a joint news conference with the king, Bush did not repeat the assurances he gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) last month that he supports Israel's retention of some settlements on the West Bank as part of an overall agreement with the Palestinians.
Bush said all such issues must be negotiated against the backdrop of U.N. Security Council resolutions of 1967 and 1973 that called on Israel to withdraw from captured land.
"The United States will not prejudice the outcome of those negotiations," Bush said in response to widespread Arab and European complaints that he was tilted toward Israel in the long-standing dispute with the Arabs.
Bush said he was committed to his vision of a Palestinian state and he echoed Arab demands that it be viable and contiguous. The president, with Abdullah at his side in the Rose Garden, added, "Jordan and the United States share a vision for a free, stable and prosperous Middle East."
Bush reaffirmed his endorsement of Sharon's plan to withdraw all Israeli troops and 7,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza and to pull out of parts of the West Bank, saying it was a "bold plan" that could lead to Palestinian statehood.
Only a few week earlier, the president publicly supported Israel's retention of some population clusters on the West Bank and backed Israel in opposing the settlement of Palestinian refugees in Israel.
He said "new realities" had emerged in the 37 years since the end of the Six-Day war — a clear reference to the 225,000 Israeli Jews who live on the West Bank.
Bush did not repeat the statements he made to Sharon in a letter and at a news conference. Nor did he make any reference to Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel.
For his part, Abdullah said Israel must withdraw to the borders it held before the 1967 war, which ended its 19-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem when it joined other Arab nation in fighting Israel. Egypt lost Gaza.
"All final status issues should be a matter for the parties to decide," Abdullah said.
Any Israeli withdrawal from Gaza or the West Bank should lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, the king said.
"A viable, sovereign and independent Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders is also in Jordan's national interest," Abdullah said.
Without elaboration and in what appeared to be a warning, the king said "failing to achieve such an outcome will invoke other options, all of which will endanger my country's interests and that of the region."
In what seemed to be a snub after the Bush-Sharon meeting, Abdullah postponed a planned meeting April 21 with Bush at the White House. At the time, President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) of Egypt declared that Arabs hold a "hatred never equaled" for Americans.
Both Jordan and Egypt have peace treaties with Israel and are considered moderate by most analysts of the region, though they have fought many wars with the Jewish state.
Arab governments and their European supporters were watching closely for expressions of support from Bush at his meeting with Abdullah.
In the days leading up to Abdullah's visit, Jordanian and Bush administration officials discussed the king's request for a written statement that Palestinians who have lost homes and land would get compensation as part of an overall agreement with Israel.
But the White House visit ended without any word that the king would receive it — at least immediately.
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