Video: Bush and Olmert speeches from last night's conference (excerpt)
This video is just a couple of excerpts of the speeches by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert at Shimon Peres' Presidents' conference last night.Earlier in the evening, several people were injured when a rocket fired from Gaza hit the city of Ashkelon. They include a mother and daughter. Israel Radio reported this morning that a total of 34 people were injured, four of them seriously.
Today, Olmert is taking Bush to Masada. As you may recall, this is because they wanted to take President Bush someplace Jewish, but decided that the Western Wall and the Golan Heights are too controversial. So instead, Olmert is taking Bush to Masada in the middle of the desert, where the weatherman says it will 'only' be 91 degrees this afternoon (as compared to 96 yesterday). Heh. Masada is a place where Jews committed mass suicide two millenia ago. Deja vu all over again?
By the way, my upstairs neighbor has a 17-passenger van and is driving President Bush's family around ("Laura goes in the limousine in front of me and everyone else goes with me"). He tells me that his apartment is full of flowers because Laura has no place to put them, so she said "give them to the driver to bring home to his wife." I wonder how they're driving there. The fastest way goes through Judea (and the outskirts of Jericho). I assume Bush and Pinocchio are going by helicopter anyway.
Let's go to the videotape. I'll have more on the Bush visit later.
P.S. Sorry about the Hebrew voiceovers. I cannot stand them either. Most people in this country speak enough English that they really should not be necessary.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:58 AM
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As the Jerusalem Post noted in an editorial, the issue isn't about borders. Today, the Palestinians are celebrating "Nakba" which should tell people something about the real issue. When they demand Israel implement the right of return, its clear enough they're not interested in two states for two peoples. That's true of Hamas and Mahmoud Zahar and the "moderate" PA led by Mahmoud Abbas. They both want to supplant Israel. On what basis could an agreement - even a "shelf agreement" be attained? And even Olmert is now talking about putting off Jerusalem til later. It all shows how intractable the dispute is because it doesn't involve issues that lend themselves to give and take but rather issues of identity and rights that are mutually exclusive.
Olmert could have saved Bush's time by informing him both sides can't come to terms and it is not Israel that has stood in the way of a final peace settlement. So the fiction which pretends both sides have a mutual interest in peace will continue to drag on for the foreseeable future. The truth would have been a much better outcome for both sides as well as for well meaning foreign mediators who have no idea why the disagreement between Israel and the Arabs is in fact in all probability, unbridgeable.
Bush at Masada ! Oh please, let there not be photos of this sick betrayal.
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