Bush May Visit Israel, Palestinian Territories
Middle East Trip Is Part of Busy Diplomatic Schedule for Final Year in Office

By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

President Bush plans to visit the Middle East in January, the White House announced yesterday, as he kicks off a busy schedule of international diplomacy in his final year in office.

The White House declined to offer any details beyond confirming the trip to the region, but the visit, announced on the heels of last week's Annapolis conference, is likely to include Bush's first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian territories and may signal his intention of trying to play a stepped-up role in brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Other than three trips to meet Iraqi officials, Bush has traveled to the Middle East only once as president. In 2003, he met Arab allies in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and then attended a three-way summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, then prime minister and now president of the Palestinian Authority.

Bush did travel to Israel in 1998 as Texas governor, and that trip has been frequently cited as helping foster close ties between him and Sharon.

In an interview last week with the Associated Press, Bush was asked whether he plans to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories. "We'll see," he replied. "You don't have to be in a particular country to have influence on whether or not the process moves forward. But I'd like to go to Israel, I'd like to go to Saudi Arabia. But if that ever gets planned and agreed upon, I'll let you know."

Bush is planning an active year of personal diplomacy in 2008. He announced last week that he plans to visit Africa to check on his anti-AIDS initiative; aides say he is also planning trips to Japan for the Group of Eight meeting of industrialized countries, to China for the Summer Olympics, to Romania for a NATO summit and to Peru for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.