‘Tension’ Seen Over Bush’s Israel Visit

President George W. Bush may be in for a rude awakening when he arrives in Israel on Wednesday.
“If President Bush is coming here expecting to talk about Annapolis , the Iran report killed it,” said Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University.
He was referring to a recent American intelligence assessment that concluded that Iran froze its nuclear arms program in 2003 and has not restarted it. Israeli intelligence experts, however, believe that the scale of Tehran’s uranium enrichment efforts and its continued development of long-range ballistic missiles is evidence that its covert nuclear weapons program continues.

“The Israelis thought they were going to Annapolis , with the Saudis and other moderate Arab states there to make sure an international coalition led by the U.S. supported it,” Steinberg said.

But the subsequent release of the National Intelligence Estimate by 16 U.S. agencies, he said, has propelled the Iran issue to the top of the agenda in Israeli minds. Steinberg pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that Iran will be the prime topic of discussion with Bush.

Israel’s response to the report is that its confidence in the U.S. and its promises about security for Israel “have lost their value,” he said, noting that countries are “rushing to do business with Iran because they know the U.S. will not take it seriously.”
Consequently, Israel’s freedom to take military action against Iran’s nuclear program has also been curtailed.

“There is going to be a lot of tension underlying the Bush visit,” Steinberg added. “The president is coming at the highest point of tension between Israel and the U.S. in at least five years. ... The Americans think the main issue is Annapolis. But the issue Bush will be asked about when there is a press availability is Iran. There is no serious Israeli constituency for Annapolis. It isn’t going anywhere and the deaths last week are evidence of that.”

---EOE---

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c40_a1617/News/Israel.html

Somebody needs to explain to Ehud that he has nothing Bush that can be threatened with at this point, and in most cases he will not recognize a threat when you make it. The Bushite record is to repay service with destruction, allegiance with betrayal. Dumping on him about the NIE will just piss him off.

American leader calls Israeli settlements in West Bank 'impediment,' urges more outpost evacuations. US leader to visit region next week for visit time since elected president

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490191,00.html

<snip>

"US President George W. Bush on Thursday called Israeli settlement expansion an "impediment" to the success of revived peace efforts and urged the Jewish state to follow through on its pledge to dismantle unauthorized settler outposts.

Speaking less than a week before his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank, Bush voiced optimism at the prospects for securing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of 2008, a goal set at last November's Annapolis conference that has been viewed with some skepticism.

Bush said he would use his trip to keep up pressure on both sides, including making clear to Israelis his concern about continued Jewish settlement activity.

"I will talk about Israeli settlement expansion, about how that is, that can be, you know, an impediment to success," he told Reuters in an interview. "The unauthorized outposts for example need to be dismantled, like the Israelis said they would do."

<snip>

"Israel is not sticking to its commitment to halt building in Jewish settlements, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Friday in an Israeli newspaper, days before U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in the region to prod Israel and the Palestinians toward a final peace deal.

It's possible that there is "no chance" a peace agreement will be reached this year as Bush hopes, Olmert told the English-language daily The Jerusalem Post. Bush has not applied any pressure on Israel to advance in the negotiations, Olmert said.

Bush is slated to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories starting Jan. 9, in his first trip to the area as president, after the sides agreed at a U.S.-sponsored conference in November to renew peace talks frozen during seven years of violence.

As part of the negotiations, Israel and the Palestinians have revived a 2003 peace plan known as the road map. Under that plan, Israel committed to halt settlement construction and dismantle unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank, while the Palestinians pledged to crack down on anti-Israeli militants.

The plan largely foundered when each side accused the other of not fulfilling their part.

"I have announced that the state of Israel will not build new settlements and will not confiscate land for this purpose and I intend to keep the obligation," Olmert said in the interview. But he acknowledged Israel was indeed not fully upholding its part of the road map because settlement construction continued."

more

But has the rocket fire stopped, even for a day? Have the smugglers bringing in more and more violent and dangerous weapons stopped? Have the militants let up on their message to take over "all of greater Palestine" for even a single day?

There is no good faith on either side, and there will be no peace agreement this year unless both sides begin to make some concessions.