Bush pledges to return to Israel in May

[Scurrilous]

US president heads to Kuwait after eventful three-day visit to Israel, says he feels 'optimistic' about possibility of achieving peace treaty in near future. Earlier on Friday Bush traveled to several Christian holy sites, paid his respects to Holocaust victims at Yad Vashem

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3493051,00.html

<snip>

"President George W. Bush said Friday that he would return to Israel in May for the country's 60th anniversary.

"There's a good chance for peace and I want to help you," Bush said, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres at the airport here, where he boarded Air Force One, ending his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. President, thank you very much for your invitation to come back. I'm accepting it now," Bush said on the tarmac."

<snip>

"Bush said at the airport his visit had been very positive and that he was carrying "a message of optimism" about the possibilities of achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.

Bush said during the trip he expected an agreement would be signed by the end of the year."



Bush in the Middle East: Iran over Palestine, Israel over all

http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=17787

Bush's current visit to the Middle East, despite the official central message of supporting an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has far more to do with Iran.

<snip>

"That is not a secret; the lead article in Israel's leading daily, Ha'aretz, describing the Bush meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, begins "Iran's nuclear program was at the center of the closed door meeting between Bush and Olmert." Israel rejects the findings of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released last month that found that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and does not necessarily even want one. In spite of that, Olmert told Bush, "our unequivocal conclusion is that they are busy developing nuclear weapons." According to Ha'aretz, Bush agreed, saying the Iranians could resume their weapons program as easily as they froze it in 2003. It was understood before Bush even arrived in the region that a major part of his goal was to reassure Israel that the NIE would have no consequence - that it did not actually signal any change in U.S. posture towards Iran. His trip intended to "clear up any confusion in the region regarding Iran," Bush said. "The NIE report may have sent a signal to some that the U.S. doesn't think that Iran is a threat," he continued as he went on to disabuse that notion. "Iran continues to be a threat to world peace." And that means the U.S. would continue to provide support for Israel vis-à-vis Iran even if Tel Aviv's overtly aggressive threats towards Iran contradict the findings of Bush's own intelligence agencies.

Bush told Israel "you better take the Iranian threat seriously," and Israeli President Shimon Peres responded that Israel had taken Bush's advice "not to underestimate the Iranian threat." He used the opportunity to warn Tehran that "Iran should not underestimate Israel's resolve for self-defense."

Bush visits to Arab countries will also be about mobilizing against Iran.

Iran will also be on top of the agenda of Bush stops in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt. Arab regimes have their own fears about Iran, but they don't match Washington's. The fear is not based on a Sunni-Shi'a divide, as Washington discourse would have us believe, but because, with the U.S. destruction and occupation of Iraq, Iran is today the only country in the Middle East with all three indigenous requisites to be the regional power - oil wealth, sufficient water, and large size population and territory. U.S. troops are based in all the countries Bush will visit. If the U.S. (with or without Israel) attacks Iran, any retaliation aimed at U.S. troop concentrations or U.S. warships (Bahrain is headquarters for the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet) could well bring any of those mostly small countries directly into the line of fire.

The Bush administration persuaded numerous Arab governments to attend the Annapolis negotiations in November, largely to shore up their backing of Washington's anti-Iran crusade. But release of the NIE just after Annapolis diminished that effect, so this week's Middle East junket is partly about repeating the Annapolis mantra: despite the NIE, the Bush administration is still telling Arab regimes, stick with us, mobilize against Iran and we'll continue to prop you up with new military support. And you can keep your angry populations in line by telling them that we're supporting a Palestinian state."

[Bicoastal]

1. THIS JUST IN: Israel Immediately Changes all the Locks to Country.

Huge Sign Put up in Front of Israel: "Closed For Repairs"

[shain from kane]

2. The Second Coming. n/t

[Benhurst]

3. Is that a promise or a threat?

Haven't the people in that part of the world suffered enough?