Blair, Bush See Hope for Palestinian State

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites), meeting with ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) hours after Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s burial, declared Friday, "We have a great chance to establish a Palestinian state."


"I intend to use the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state," Bush said. "I believe it is in the interests of the world that such a truly free state develop. I know it is in the interest of the Palestinian people."

~snip~

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=716&e=1&u=/ap/20041112/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_blair

and DU's version of the news conference:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2678789&mesg_id=2678789

:crazy:

Well ... I hope he's actually serious.

his 'diplomacy' that he bestowed on Iraq, which means another war might be ~6 months away. :tinfoilhat:

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites), meeting with ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) hours after the burial of Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), declared Friday, "We have a great chance to establish a Palestinian state" if Arafat's successors embrace democracy.


"We'll hold their feet to the fire to make sure that democracy prevails," Bush said.

~snip~

He warned that with upcoming Iraqi elections, "the desperation of the killers will grow and the violence could escalate." But he said victory in Iraq would be a blow to terrorists everywhere.


On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bush said there was a "new opportunity" for resolving the decades-old stalemate. He put much of the onus on the new Palestinian leadership.


The United States is "looking forward to working with Palestinian leaders who are committed to fighting terrorism and committed to democratic reform," Bush said.

more:

'Horizon' says it all.

and as usual, he'll run it into the ground.


"I intend to use the next four years to spend the "capital" of the United States on such a state."

It's gonna be a long four years.

While talking a good ballgame, these two consumate liars, showed their disinclination to act on the Palestinian issue 4 years ago, when the chimp welcomed Ariel Sharon to the WH and told the world that he was a "man of peace" (which chimp has consistantly parroted). 3.5 years later he authorized the "gift" of 4500 500lb laser-guided bombs to the Israelis, to use as they see fit. In between, the US blocked UN sanctions by the UN Security Counsel against Israel twice, for their inhumane treatment of the Palestinians in violation of the Geneva Convention, and overtly agreed to give Israel diplomatic "cover" regardless of the depth of their mistreatment of Palestinians w/in the occupied territories.

As usual, the lingo doesn't square with the actions. The actual agenda, based on actions, is the extermination of Palestinians in the occupied territories, or a mass diaspora to rid Israel of those pesky Palestinians.

Gyre

I pray that someone sees fit to aid the Palestinians
in the fight for their survival.

Oh yea, it is most definately in out interests to fomit continued violence in Palestine or better yet nuke the Palestinians (sarc)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45224-2004Nov12.html?nav=headlines

none of the Q&A yet...probably will take a while to decipher.

was arrested. Does junior plan on arming the new Palestinian State?

"Okay, I followed you into your damned Iraq War. Now it's time for YOU to follow MY lead so we can work on a Palestinian Peace. If you don't, you can forget about the British troops helpinig you out in Iraq and Afghanistan and you WILL become a pariah state."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1575090.stm


Powell: Bush pondering 'temporary Palestinian state'
(June 12, 2002)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/06/12/mideast/


Bush mulls 'provisional' Palestinian state
(June 14, 2002)
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/bush.mideast/


First he endorsed, then he pondered and mulled, now he's hoping. Sounds like Bush is hard at work on this Palestinian state thingy.

-install puppet leader

-palestinians revolt

-kill all "insurgents"

-destroy islamic holy sites

-armageddon

-wait for Jesus

~snip~
PRESIDENT BUSH: (Laughs.) I'll start with the accomplishing on the Europe trip. It is to remind people that the world is better off, America is better off, Europe is better off when we work together.

And there's a lot we can accomplish working together. There's a lot we have accomplished working together. We're working very closely to find al Qaeda and bring members of al Qaeda to justice.

We've worked closely to free Afghanistan. We're working closely to interdict the flow of weapons of mass destruction. The Proliferation Security Initiative is based of -- the membership of which is a lot of members of the EU. I mean, there's a lot of things we're working together on. NATO expansion we work together on. Such a refreshing moment when the new leaders of -- the leaders of the new countries in NATO walked in the room in the Czech Republic. It was a fantastic moment to see these proud members walk in and say we're now a member of the greatest alliance ever.

~snip~

But one thing is for certain; we are going to develop a strategy so that once the elections are over, we will be able to say here's how we will help you. If you want to be helped, here's what we're willing to do. If you choose not to be helped, if you decide you don't want a free, democratic society, there's nothing we can do. If you think you can have peace without democracy, again, I think you'll find that -- I can only speak for myself, that I will be extremely doubtful that will ever happen.

I've seen it work too many times -- tried too many times.

Yeah, there's going to be people around who say the Palestinians can't develop a democracy; it's impossible for them to live in a free society. I strongly disagree with that. And so the whole premise of this strategy that we will outline is all based toward that vision of a free and truly democratic society emerging.

See, what's going to happen is when that happens there will be great trust developed between Israel and the Palestinian people. Free societies are able societies able to develop trust between each other, and there's clearly a lack of trust right now. And so, yeah -- I mean, we'll do that what it takes to put a strategy in place and advance it and call upon other nations to work with us.




http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-bushblairtext_wr,0,3071632.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Q You know, you talk about democracy being so necessary. There are those who would say there is sometimes a harsh peace of a dictator. What if the Palestinian state comes up with somebody who is not a democrat but is willing to have peace with the Israelis?

And let me transfer that to the Iraqis as well. What if the Iraqis come up with somebody who's not friendly to the United States, is not a democrat, but it's peaceful? Is this something you can live with?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, first of all, if there's an election, the Iraqis will have come up with somebody who is duly elected. (Chuckles.) In other words, democracy will have spoken. And that person is going to have to listen to the people, not to the whims of -- of, you know, a dictator; not to their own, you know, desires, personal desires. The great thing about democracy is you actually go out and ask the people for a vote, as you might have noticed recently, and the people get to decide, and they get to decide the course of their future.

So it's -- it's a contradiction in terms to say a dictator, you know, gets elected. The person who gets elected is chosen by the people. And so I'm not, you know --

Q If he's the elected leader, if he --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you can be elected and then, you know, be a strongman, and then you get voted out, so long as you end up honoring democracy. But if you're -- if you're true to democracy, you'll listen to the people, not to your own desires. If you're true to democracy, you'll do what the people want you to do. That's the difference between democracy and a tyrant.