The White House 'After Party'

Here are some interview excerpts: "It is important that people understand that we're dealing not only with a lot of history, but we're dealing with terror and extremists and radicals who murder -- you've heard me say this a lot -- who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives. And therefore, the first step in getting to the process we ended up on today is to -- for me to have recognized that the problem is terror, and states cannot accept terror on their border, particularly democracies, nor can a state be formed because of terror," Bus said.

"So step one in getting to the process today was recognition of the significant problem that terror poses for the creation of a state."

Glenn Kessler notes in The Washington Post how Bush's speech, with its emphasis on terrorism, contrasted sharply with those of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"In his speech, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seized the opportunity to directly address Arab officials, a group that included 16 representatives of the 22-member Arab League, among them the deputy foreign minister of Syria. He referred to the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, as 'my friend' and said that Israelis understand the humiliations that have been inflicted on Palestinians and how that has fed hatred against Israel. 'We are not indifferent to this suffering,' he said. . . .

"In his speech, Abbas also expressed his hope for peace and praised Olmert"

But: "In his own speech, Bush sketched a much more ominous view of the region than Olmert and Abbas. 'The battle is underway for the future of the Middle East, and we must not cede victory to the extremists,' he said. 'With their violent actions and contempt for human life, the extremists are seeking to impose a dark vision on the Palestinian people, a vision that feeds on hopelessness and despair to sow chaos in the Holy Land. If this vision prevails, the future of the region will be endless terror, endless war and endless suffering.' . . .

"Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, said Bush's speech seemed jarring next to the more uplifting visions of Olmert and Abbas. 'It plays so badly in the region when he tries to make this an anti-terrorism conference,' he said.

The Agreement

Paul Richter writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Israeli and Palestinian leaders formally agreed at an international conference Tuesday to launch their first set of peace negotiations in seven years, but failed in tortuous private discussions to resolve key questions over the content and structure of the talks.

"As a result, a day that began with handshakes and hopes for peace ended with undispelled doubts over the prospect for success of the renewed effort to end decades of strife in the Middle East. . . .

"Despite statements of mutual support, the vague wording of the joint declaration signaled that the Israelis had emerged from the conference with more of what they wanted than the Palestinians. It also underscored the wide chasm separating the two sides as they begin trying to reach a deal."

Steven Lee Myers and Helene Cooper write in the New York Times: "The agreement stopped short of the binding negotiating outline that many Palestinians had hoped for, but it revived a peace process that the United States had left dormant for seven years.

"Its success, both sides said, will depend in part on how vigorously President Bush pushes Palestinians and Israelis toward resolving the core issues that have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979: the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who left, or were forced to leave, their homes in Israel."