In Israel, Bush Speaks Of Hope
Fresh Mideast Violence Underlines Challenges That Negotiators Face

By Griff Witte and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 15, 2008

JERUSALEM, May 14 -- President Bush arrived here Wednesday with a message of hope for Middle East peace prospects, despite fresh violence, scant signs of progress and deepening skepticism among both Israelis and Palestinians that there can be an agreement.

Bush, beginning a five-day visit to the Middle East, was welcomed warmly during his appearances with Israeli leaders. Speaking at an elaborate evening ceremony celebrating 60 years of friendship between the United States and Israel, Bush told a crowd of 3,000 well-wishers that he is looking forward to "the day when I believe every child in the Middle East can live in peace and live in freedom."

Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza during clashes with the Israeli military. Medical officials said that two of the dead were civilians. Later, a rocket fired from Gaza slammed into a busy shopping mall in the coastal city of Ashkelon. Sixteen people were wounded, three of them seriously, including a mother and her daughter, according to Israeli hospital and police officials. A group affiliated with Hamas took responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the attack "entirely intolerable" and said Israel will "take the necessary steps so that this will stop."

The violence was a reminder of the obstacles facing negotiators as they attempt to cobble together a peace deal -- one that Bush has said he wants completed by the end of his term in January.

The negotiations, dormant for seven years, were relaunched with great fanfare in Annapolis last November. At the time, Israeli and Palestinian leaders announced that they were committed to reaching a deal on all the fundamental disagreements at the heart of the decades-old conflict, and that the ultimate outcome would be a Palestinian state next to Israel.

But since then, Israel has moved forward with plans to build more Jewish settlements on the West Bank. It has also added to the number of roadblocks on the West Bank and has kept up a tight economic embargo in Gaza.

Hamas and other groups committed to Israel's destruction, meanwhile, have launched a daily barrage of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza. Israel has charged that the Palestinian Authority, which holds sway in the West Bank, is not doing all it can to crack down on such groups.

The peace negotiations have been widely discounted by a broad cross section of the population in both Palestinian and Israeli society.

"I don't think Palestinians believe there is going to be a deal," said Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at the West Bank's Bir Zeit University. "And if there is a deal, the overwhelming majority don't think it would be favorable to the Palestinian position."

Galia Golan, a professor emeritus of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Peace Now activist, said the negotiations appear to be headed nowhere despite a consensus on the basic issues. "Everybody supports the two-state solution. Everybody believes there should be negotiations. Nobody believes anything is going to come of it," she said.

Avraham Cohen, a 22-year-old ultra-Orthodox settler, said Bush is "the best president that the Jewish nation has ever known." But he said he sees little prospect for a peace deal, and wonders why Bush bothered to come: "What's the point of the visit? I don't know."

An Israeli official familiar with the talks described them as "serious and intense." The sides have been meeting almost daily for months, preparing draft agreements and charting out the new borders on dueling maps.

The official, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said that any public airing of the details could undermine the effort. "Secrecy is critical at this stage if we want the talks to succeed," he said.

After touching down in Tel Aviv, Bush flew to Jerusalem for meetings with President Shimon Peres and Olmert. The visit comes as Olmert faces a deepening corruption scandal that many Israeli commentators believe could lead to his indictment and resignation.

Bush, though, was upbeat throughout the day, focusing fresh criticism on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran while vowing to stand by Israel. Bush has broad backing in Israel, and there were no significant protests in either Israel or the Palestinian territories.

"I suspect if you looked back 60 years ago and tried to guess where Israel would be at that time, it would be hard to be able to project such a prosperous, hopeful land," Bush said after meeting with Peres. "I doubt people would have been able to see the modern Israel, which is one reason I bring so much optimism to the Middle East, because what happened here is possible everywhere."

Bush elicited a raucous standing ovation from a crowd that included other world leaders and prominent Jewish figures at a ceremony Wednesday night marking the U.S.-Israel alliance.

"Happy Birthday," Bush said after an elaborately produced program of song, dance and videos. He spoke of the "marvelous story" of the founding of Israel, praised the "visionary" Israeli leaders of history, and he paid homage to President Harry S. Truman's decision to recognize the state 11 minutes after independence was declared.

Special correspondents Islam Abdulkarim in Gaza City and Samuel Sockol in Jerusalem contributed to this report.